Publisher: Park Row

#BookReview Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica @harpercollinsca @parkrowbooks #LocalWomanMissing #MaryKubica #BooksofHCC

#BookReview Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica @harpercollinsca @parkrowbooks #LocalWomanMissing #MaryKubica #BooksofHCC Title: Local Woman Missing

Author: Mary Kubica

Published by: Park Row on May 18, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: HarperCollins Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

People don’t just disappear without a trace…

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, eleven years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find…

In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.


Review:

Intense, menacing, and addictive!

Local Woman Missing is an unsettling, intricate thriller that takes you to the Chicago suburbs and into the lives of multiple acquaintances as their worlds unravel, intersect, shatter, and then ultimately collide eleven years later when the truth and ultimately the fate of two missing women and a six-year-old little girl is finally unearthed. 

The prose is methodical and tight. The characters are tormented, scarred, and resilient. And the plot told from multiple perspectives and using a back-and-forth, past/present style is an ominous tale of twists, turns, familial drama, secrets, lies, deception, relationship dynamics, reckless behaviour, swirling emotions, abuse, violence, and murder.

Overall, Local Woman Missing is a taut, tragic, compulsive whodunit by Kubica that highlights that actions can often have devastating consequences and reminds us just how cruel and evil those with something to hide can ultimately be.

 

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

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

 

About Mary Kubica

Mary Kubica is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of THE GOOD GIRL and PRETTY BABY.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children and enjoys photography, gardening and caring for the animals at a local shelter. 

Photo by Sarah Jastre.

#BookReview The Diplomat’s Wife by Pam Jenoff @PamJenoff @HarlequinBooks @Bookclubbish #TheDiplomatsWife #PamJenoff #Bookclubbish #HTPBooks

#BookReview The Diplomat’s Wife by Pam Jenoff @PamJenoff @HarlequinBooks @Bookclubbish #TheDiplomatsWife #PamJenoff #Bookclubbish #HTPBooks Title: The Diplomat's Wife

Author: Pam Jenoff

Series: The Kommandant's Girl #2

Published by: Park Row on Nov. 24, 2020

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Harlequin Trade Publishing

Book Rating: 8.5/10

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan’s Tale and The Lost Girls of Paris comes a tale of sacrifice and heartbreak in the aftermath of WWII

How have I been lucky enough to come here, to be alive, when so many others are not? I should have died… But I am here.

1945. Having survived the brutality of a Nazi prison camp, Marta Nederman is lucky to have escaped with her life. Recovering from the horror, she meets Paul, an American soldier who gives her hope of a happier future. But their plans to meet in London are dashed when Paul’s plane crashes.

Devastated and pregnant, Marta marries Simon, a caring British diplomat, and glimpses the joy that home and family can bring. But her happiness is threatened when she learns of a Communist spy in British intelligence, and that the one person who can expose the traitor is connected to her past.


Review:

Moving, enthralling, and intense!

The Diplomat’s Wife is the thrilling, absorbing sequel to The Kommandant’s Girl set at the end of WWII that takes you into the life of Marta Nederman, a Polish resistance fighter who after being liberated from Dachau meets a handsome American soldier, travels to London on a borrowed visa, marries a British Diplomat, and then returns to Poland two years later on a mission that will ultimately change her life forever.

The prose is rich and vivid. The characters are brave, vulnerable, and strong. And the plot is a compelling blend of life, loss, secrets, surprises, heartbreak, betrayal, survival, danger, friendship, and romance.

Overall, The Diplomat’s Wife is a passionate, riveting, action-packed tale by Jenoff that transports you to another time and place and immerses you so thoroughly into the personalities, feelings, and lives of the characters within it that you can’t help but be fully absorbed and invested.

 

This novel is available now.

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

                

 

 

Thank you to HTP Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Pam Jenoff

Pam Jenoff is the author of several books of historical fiction, including the NYT bestseller The Orphan's Tale. She holds a degree in international affairs from George Washington University and a degree in history from Cambridge, and she received her JD from UPenn. Her novels are inspired by her experiences working at the Pentagon and as a diplomat for the State Department handling Holocaust issues in Poland. She lives with her husband and 3 children near Philadelphia, where she teaches law.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

#BookReview The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns @author_AnaJohns @HarperCollinsCa @SavvyReader #SavvyReadathon

#BookReview The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns @author_AnaJohns @HarperCollinsCa @SavvyReader #SavvyReadathon Title: The Woman in the White Kimono

Author: Ana Johns

Published by: Park Row on May 28, 2019

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: HarperCollins Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

Oceans and decades apart, two women are inextricably bound by the secrets between them.

Japan, 1957. Seventeen-year-old Naoko Nakamura’s prearranged marriage to the son of her father’s business associate would secure her family’s status in their traditional Japanese community, but Naoko has fallen for another man—an American sailor, a gaijin—and to marry him would bring great shame upon her entire family. When it’s learned Naoko carries the sailor’s child, she’s cast out in disgrace and forced to make unimaginable choices with consequences that will ripple across generations.

America, present day. Tori Kovac, caring for her dying father, finds a letter containing a shocking revelation—one that calls into question everything she understood about him, her family and herself. Setting out to learn the truth behind the letter, Tori’s journey leads her halfway around the world to a remote seaside village in Japan, where she must confront the demons of the past to pave a way for redemption.

In breathtaking prose and inspired by true stories from a devastating and little-known era in Japanese and American history, The Woman in the White Kimono illuminates a searing portrait of one woman torn between her culture and her heart, and another woman on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.


Review:

Poignant, beautiful, and incredibly heartwrenching!

The Woman in the White Kimono is predominantly set in Japan during the late 1950s, as well as present day, and is told from two different perspectives; Tori, a young journalist who journeys to Japan after her father’s death to unravel the secrets of his past and to find the family he may have left behind, and Naoko, a young Japanese girl whose forbidden love for an American soldier will change her life forever.

The prose is vivid and expressive. The characters are multi-layered, vulnerable, and resilient. And the plot is a profoundly moving tale about life, love, familial relationships, heartbreak, loss, guilt, grief, desperation, courage, hope, and regret.

Overall, The Woman in the White Kimono is the perfect blend of historical facts, evocative fiction, and palpable emotion. It’s a bittersweet, tender, affecting tale that will not only make you smile, make you cry, but resonate with you long after the final page has been read.

This novel is available now.

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

                                            

 

 

Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for providing me with a copy as a prize during the #savvyreadthon.

 

About Ana Johns

Ana Johns studied broadcast journalism and worked over twenty-years in the creative arts field, as both a creative director and business owner before turning her hand to fiction. THE WOMAN in the WHITE KIMONO, an instant Globe and Mail & Toronto Star bestseller & BBC Radio2 Book Club Pick, is her first historical fiction.

Photograph by Ana Johns.

#BookReview Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle @KimberlySBelle @parkrowbooks @HarperCollinsCa

#BookReview Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle @KimberlySBelle @parkrowbooks @HarperCollinsCa Title: Dear Wife

Author: Kimberly Belle

Published by: Park Row on Jun. 25, 2019

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: HarperCollins Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

Beth Murphy is on the run…

For nearly a year, Beth has been planning for this day. A day some people might call any other Wednesday, but Beth prefers to see it as her new beginning–one with a new look, new name and new city. Beth has given her plan significant thought because one small slip and her violent husband will find her.

Sabine Hardison is missing…

A couple of hundred miles away, Jeffrey returns home from a work trip to find his wife, Sabine, is missing. Wherever she is, she’s taken almost nothing with her. Her abandoned car is the only evidence the police have, and all signs point to foul play.

As the police search for leads, the case becomes more and more convoluted. Sabine’s carefully laid plans for her future indicate trouble at home and a husband who would be better off with her gone. The detective on the case will stop at nothing to find out what happened and bring this missing woman home. Where is Sabine? And who is Beth? The only thing that’s certain is that someone is lying and the truth won’t stay buried for long.


Review:

Well crafted, menacing, and delightfully unnerving!

Dear Wife is a suspenseful, riveting thrill ride that delves into the emotional and psychological damage caused by domestic abuse and highlights just how easily dominance, manipulation and intimidation can be masked as love.

The writing is tight and intense. The characters are resolute, secretive, and apprehensive. And the plot, told from three different POVs, builds steadily as it twists, turns, and unravels all the behaviours, motivations, relationships, and personalities within it.

Dear Wife is, ultimately, a story of obsession, deception, desperation, survival, violence, and murder. It’s creepy, shocking, unputdownable, and without a doubt one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read this year.

This novel is available now.

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

                                           

 

 

 

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

 

About Kimberly Belle

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of five novels, including the forthcoming domestic suspense, Dear Wife (June 2019). Her third novel, The Marriage Lie, was a semifinalist in the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Mystery & Thriller, and her work has been translated into a dozen languages. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Belle divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

Photo @mrwattson

#BookReview Find Me by J.S. Monroe @JSThrillers @HarlequinBooks

#BookReview Find Me by J.S. Monroe @JSThrillers @HarlequinBooks Title: Find Me

Author: J.S. Monroe

Published by: Park Row on Jan. 16, 2018

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 397

Format: Paperback

Source: Harlequin Books

Book Rating: 8/10

A young man embarks on a desperate search for the truth in this chilling, razor-sharp thriller

Five years ago, Rosa walked to the pier in the dead of night, looked into the swirling water and jumped. She was a brilliant young Cambridge student who had just lost her father. Her death was tragic, but not unexpected.

But is that what really happened?

Her death was ruled a suicide. But Rosa’s boyfriend, Jar, still can’t let go. He sees Rosa everywhere—a face on the train, a figure on the cliff. He is obsessed with proving that she is still alive. And then he gets an email.

“Find me, Jar. Find me, before they do…”

As Jar digs into the past, he enters a dark underworld where nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted. He is soon thrust into the heart of a larger intrigue that may finally shed some light on Rosa’s death…even as it dangerously threatens his own life.


Review:

Gritty, dark, and disturbing!

Find Me is a complex, creepy thriller that takes you into the life of the tormented, grief-stricken Jar as he embarks on a relentless and harrowing journey to discover, once and for all, the true fate of his girlfriend Rosa who allegedly committed suicide five years prior.

The prose is intense and tight. The characters are skeptical, focused, resilient, and in some cases depraved. And the plot, told from multiple perspectives, quickly unravels as it spins you through an intricately-crafted story filled with unforeseen twists, well-timed surprises, mind games, espionage, murder, perversion, evil and pure wickedness.

Find Me is a unique, riveting tale with explicit sexual imagery and demoralization that will not only entertain, but will also confound, shock, disturb, and even frighten you.

 

This novel is available now.

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

                                            

 

 

Thank you to Harlequin Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About J.S. Monroe

J.S. Monroe is the pseudonym of the British author Jon Stock. Jon is the author of five spy novels and a new standalone psychological thriller, Find Me, to be published in 2017 under the name of JS Monroe. He lives in Wiltshire with his wife and three children.