Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

#BookReview The Storyteller’s Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheStorytellersDeath #AnnDavilaCardinal #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Storyteller’s Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheStorytellersDeath #AnnDavilaCardinal #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Storyteller's Death

Author: Ann Dávila Cardinal

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Oct. 4, 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

From International Latino Book Award-winning author Ann Dávila Cardinal comes a gorgeously written family saga about a Puerto Rican teenager who finds herself gifted (or cursed?) with a strange ability.

There was always an old woman dying in the back room of her family’s house when Isla was a child…

Isla Larsen Sanchez’s life begins to unravel when her father passes away. Instead of being comforted at home in New Jersey, her mother starts leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and great-aunt each summer like a piece of forgotten luggage.

When Isla turns eighteen, her grandmother, a great storyteller, dies. It is then that Isla discovers she has a gift passed down through her family’s cuentistas. The tales of dead family storytellers are brought back to life, replaying themselves over and over in front of her.

At first, Isla is enchanted by this connection to the Sanchez cuentistas. But when Isla has a vision of an old murder mystery, she realizes that if she can’t solve it to make the loop end, these seemingly harmless stories could cost Isla her life.

Review:

Nostalgic, memorable, and intriguing!

The Storyteller’s Death is a captivating, mysterious tale that takes you into the life of Isla Larsen Sanchez, a young eight-year-old girl who, after being sent by her mother to Puerto Rico for the summer while her father is terminally ill, continues to happily spend every summer there with her extended family until things take a little turn when at eighteen she begins to have visions of events that have happened to her deceased ancestors in the past, and when those stories begin to turn violent long-buried family secrets that some would prefer to stay hidden will finally need to be unearthed and confronted.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are multilayered, conflicted, and curious. And the plot is a compelling blend of life, loss, love, family, friendship, secrets, surprises, heartbreak, culture, community, magical realism, and resentments.

Overall, The Storyteller’s Death is a hopeful, immersive, multi-generational saga by Dávila Cardinal that reminds us that when it comes to family life is a combination of all the messy, challenging, heartbreaking, complicated moments, as well as all the lovely, wonderful, touching times that happen in-between.

 

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

 

About Ann Dávila Cardinal

Ann Dávila Cardinal is a novelist and Director of Recruitment for Vermont College of Fine Arts where she also earned her MFA in Writing. She comes from a long line of Puerto Rican writers, including father and son poets Virgilio and José Antonio Dávila, and her cousin, award-winning fiction writer Tere Dávila. Ann’s first novel, Sister Chicas, was co-written with Jane Alberdeston Coralin and Lisa Alvarado, and was released from New American Library. Her next novel, a horror young adult work titled Five Midnights, was released by Tor Teen on June 4, 2019. The story continues in Category Five, also from Tor Teen, released on June 2, 2020. Ann lives in Vermont where she cycles, knits, and prepares for the zombie apocalypse.

Photo Credit: Carlos Cardinal

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

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#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 Always the First to Die by R. J. Jacobs @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AlwaystheFirsttoDie #RJJacobs #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview Always the First to Die by R. J. Jacobs @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AlwaystheFirsttoDie #RJJacobs #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Always the First to Die

Author: R. J. Jacobs

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Sep. 13, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 304

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8/10

For fans of Riley Sager with a classic slasher twist, Always the First to Die follows a former horror movie actress as she returns to the set of her most iconic film, only to find that the strange circumstances begin to resemble the plot of her most famous film.

After her husband’s death, Lexi has refused to return to the Pinecrest Estate on the Florida Keys, too many hard memories on that strip of land. Memories of meeting her husband on the set of an iconic horror movie. Of being cast as an extra, of watching herself get killed on screen. And of scoffing at the rumors of the Pinecrest Estate “curse,” until she witnessed a cast member die that very summer. But when her daughter sneaks away to visit her grandfather, legendary horror movie director Rick Plummer, Lexi is forced to face her past. That’s when a Category Four hurricane changes course, and hits the southern coast.

Unable to get through to her daughter, Lexi drives to the Keys in the wake of the storm. What she finds is an island without cell service, without power, and with limited police presence. A desolate bit of land, with only a few remaining behind: the horror director, the starlet once cast as the final girl, the young teenager searching for clues of her father, the mother determined to get off the island, and…the person picking them off one-by-one.

Soon enough Lexi’s life begins to resemble Rick’s most famous horror film, and she must risk her life to save her daughter before someone, or something, destroys them all.

Review:

Creepy, fast-paced, and entertaining!

Always the First to Die is an intense, engrossing thriller that takes you to the Pinecrest Estate in Key West, the set of the iconic horror movie Breathless which seemed cursed from the very start, and now where twenty-five years later, the original director and father-in-law of widowed librarian Lexi Kennedy is hoping to film a sequel featuring his seventeen-year-old granddaughter that hopefully won’t encounter the same mishaps, tragedies, and deaths that the first one did.

The writing is brisk and tight. The characters are multilayered, persistent, and vulnerable. And the plot is a suspenseful, gripping tale full of twists, turns, secrets, deception, revenge, danger, greed, familial drama, red herrings, mayhem, and murder.

Overall, Always the First to Die is a dark, ominous, crafty tale by Jacobs that kept me engaged from the very first page and is the perfect choice for anyone who enjoys a story laced with those eerie characteristics found in all the best classic horror movies.

 

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About R. J. Jacobs

R.J. Jacobs has practiced as a psychologist since 2003. He maintains a private practice in Nashville, focusing on a wide variety of clinical concerns.
After completing a post-doctoral residency at Vanderbilt, he has taught Abnormal Psychology, presented at numerous conferences, and routinely performs PTSD evaluations for veterans.
His novel, titled: And Then You Were Gone, was published in 2019. His second novel: Somewhere In the Dark, was published in 2020.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris @KrisMcmorris @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheWaysWeHide #KristinaMcMorris #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris @KrisMcmorris @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheWaysWeHide #KristinaMcMorris #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Ways We Hide

Author: Kristina McMorris

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Sep. 6, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 496

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 10/10

A sweeping World War II tale of an illusionist whose recruitment by British intelligence sets her on a perilous, heartrending path.

As a little girl raised amid the hardships of Michigan’s Copper Country, Fenna Vos learned to focus on her own survival. That ability sustains her even now as the Second World War rages in faraway countries. Though she performs onstage as the assistant to an unruly escape artist, behind the curtain she’s the mastermind of their act. Ultimately, controlling her surroundings and eluding traps of every kind helps her keep a lingering trauma at bay.

Yet for all her planning, Fenna doesn’t foresee being called upon by British military intelligence. Tasked with designing escape aids to thwart the Germans, MI9 seeks those with specialized skills for a war nearing its breaking point. Fenna reluctantly joins the unconventional team as an inventor. But when a test of her loyalty draws her deep into the fray, she discovers no mission is more treacherous than escaping one’s past.

Inspired by stunning true accounts, The Ways We Hide is a gripping story of love and loss, the wars we fight—on the battlefields and within ourselves—and the courage found in unexpected places.

Review:

Heart-wrenching, charged, and atmospheric!

The Ways We Hide is an absorbing, enthralling, tragic tale set during WWII that follows Fenna Vos, a young American magician who, after taking a position working in England with Christopher Hutton at MI9 inventing “escape-and-evasion gadgets” for airmen and POWS, requests to be dropped into occupied Holland to find her childhood friend and love of her life who has seemingly disappeared without a trace and believed to be a traitor and Nazi collaborator.

The prose is eloquent and polished. The characters are driven, courageous, and resilient. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine seamlessly into an absorbing tale of life, loss, family, tragedy, desperation, secrets, danger, friendship, magical illusions, survival, and war.

Overall, The Ways We Hide is a passionate, rich, evocative tale by McMorris 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. I can honestly say I devoured this novel, and it is hands down one of my favourite reads of the year!

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 Kristina McMorris

Kristina McMorris is a New York Times bestselling author of two novellas and six novels, including the runaway bestseller Sold on a Monday. Initially inspired by her grandparents’ WWII courtship letters, her works of fiction have garnered more than twenty national literary awards. Prior to her writing career, she owned a wedding-and-event planning company until she had far surpassed her limit of YMCA and chicken dances. She also worked as a weekly TV-show host for Warner Bros. and an ABC affiliate, beginning at age nine with an Emmy Award-winning program. A graduate of Pepperdine University, she lives near Portland, Oregon, where (ironically) she’s entirely deficient of a green thumb and doesn’t own a single umbrella.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview After We Were Stolen by Brooke Beyfuss @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AfterWeWereStolen #BrookeBeyfuss #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview After We Were Stolen by Brooke Beyfuss @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AfterWeWereStolen #BrookeBeyfuss #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: After We Were Stolen

Author: Brooke Beyfuss

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jul. 19, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

An emotionally wrought debut novel perfect for book clubs about a girl who escapes from a cult after a deadly fire destroys her family’s compound, only to be haunted by That Night as she tries to build a new life for herself.

A fire. Her escape. And the realization her entire life has been a lie.

When nineteen-year-old Avery awakens to flames consuming her family’s remote compound, she knows it’s her only chance to escape her father’s grueling survival training, bizarre rules, and gruesome punishments. She and her brother Cole flee the grounds for the first time in their lives, suddenly homeless in a world they know nothing about. After months of hiding out, they are arrested for shoplifting and a shocking discovery is made—Avery and Cole were kidnapped fifteen years earlier, stolen by cult leaders they knew as Mom and Dad.

Cole is immediately returned to his birth family, leaving Avery alone and desperate. She is uncertain if her “parents” survived the fire and is terrified to find out. The loss of Cole and the trauma of her former life threaten to undo her, but when the police investigation reveals there may be more survivors, Avery must uncover the truth about the fire to truly be free.

Suspenseful, emotionally charged, and deeply thought-provoking, After We Were Stolen delves into the idea of family—those we’re born into and those we make—resilience, and the lengths a cult survivor will go to finally be free of her painful past. Brooke Beyfuss’s powerful debut novel sparkles with heart, grit, and extraordinary characters who will stay with you long after the last page.

Review:

Intense, heart-wrenching, and tragic!

After We Were Stolen is a gripping, emotional mystery that sweeps you away to Kansas and into the life of Avery, a nineteen-year-old young woman who, after waking to a fire engulfing her family’s strict, abusive, survivalist compound, endeavours to find safety and start a new life with her younger brother, Cole as far away as possible until a shoplifting arrest turns her whole life upside down and changes everything she thought she knew about her past, her family, and who she really is.

The writing is raw and expressive. The characters are vulnerable, confused, and scarred. And the plot is a haunting tale of life, loss, secrets, resilience, sexual assault, abuse, childhood trauma, shocking revelations, self-identification, and redemption.

Overall, After We Were Stolen is a powerful, moving, beautiful debut by Beyfuss that takes you on a roller coaster ride of the emotional and psychological effects of long-term manipulation, control, indoctrination, and deviant ideologies and reminds us that even after suffering the most unimaginable cruelty and wickedness humanity still has an innate ability to hope and want to love again.

 

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Brooke Beyfuss

BROOKE BEYFUSS works full-time as a copywriter. A graduate of Rutgers University, Brooke is the founder of the Woodbridge Cultural Arts' Commission Writing Group. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and daughter. AFTER WE WERE STOLEN is her debut novel.

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#BookReview The Floating Girls by Lo Patrick @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheFloatingGirls #LoPatrick #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Floating Girls by Lo Patrick @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheFloatingGirls #LoPatrick #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Floating Girls

Author: Lo Patrick

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jul. 12, 2022

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

The backwaters of Georgia hold many buried secrets. But they won’t stay buried forever.

One hot, sticky summer in Bledsoe, Georgia, twelve-year-old Kay Whitaker stumbles across a stilt house in a neighboring marsh and upon Andy Webber, a boy about her age. He and his father have recently moved back to Georgia from California, and rumors of the suspicious drowning death of Andy’s mother years earlier have chased them there and back.

Kay is fascinated and enamored with Andy, and she doesn’t listen when her father tells her to stay away from the Webbers. But when Kay’s sister goes missing, the mystery of Mrs. Webber’s death—and Kay’s parents’ potential role in it—comes to light. Kay and her brothers must navigate the layers of secrets that emerge in the course of the investigation as their family, and the world as they knew it, unravels around them.

At once wickedly funny and heartbreaking, it is an immersive coming-of-age story narrated by a feisty, smart, yet undeniably vulnerable girl reminiscent of a modern-day Scout Finch—a character who will live in readers’ hearts for a long time to come.

Review:

Poignant, atmospheric, and immersive!

The Floating Girls is a humorous, touching tale that takes you to small-town Georgia and into the life of twelve-year-old Kay Whitaker, a young girl yearning for adventure who, after stumbling across a handsome boy in the marshes behind her house and being strongly warned by her father to stay away, inadvertently triggers a series of events, including the disappearance of her strange, older sister, that will unearth long-buried secrets and ultimately change their lives forever.

The prose is vivid and rich. The characters are naive, assertive, and strong. And the plot is a heart-tugging, raw, coming-of-age tale of life, love, loss, family, friendship, poverty, desperation, tragedy, secrets, and survival.

Overall, The Floating Girls is an insightful, gritty, compelling tale by Patrick that reminds you that life is sometimes a hard, complicated struggle, secrets always seem to have a way of coming to light, and often the choices people make have far-reaching consequences.

 

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 Lo Patrick

LO PATRICK is a former lawyer and current novelist. She grew up outside Atlanta before going to Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. She remained in L.A. for seven years where she was a concert promoter, model booker, and musician. She eventually left L.A. and attended law school at University of Miami. She graduated magna cum laude and began writing. She moved back to Georgia, where she lives with her husband and two children. THE FLOATING GIRLS is her debut novel.

#BookReview The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark @jclarkab @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheLiesITell #JulieClark #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark @jclarkab @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheLiesITell #JulieClark #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Lies I Tell

Author: Julie Clark

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jun. 21, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 10/10

Two women. Many aliases.

Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She’s a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be—a college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she’s done, you’ve likely lost everything.

Kat Roberts has been waiting ten years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat’s long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg’s true target is.

The Lies I Tell is a twisted domestic thriller that dives deep into the psyches and motivations of two women and their unwavering quest to seek justice for the past and rewrite the future.

Review:

Intricate, chilling, and brilliantly plotted!

The Lies I Tell is a devious, sinister, character-driven thriller that takes you into the lives of Meg Williams and Kat Roberts, two women from completely different backgrounds whose lives become entwined when their need for vengeance and justice against those who hurt, destroyed, and irrevocably changed their lives forever binds them together.

The prose is edgy and tight. The characters are consumed, secretive, and vulnerable. And the plot using flashbacks and alternating points of view builds quickly as it twists, turns, shocks, surprises, and unravels all the personalities, behaviours, relationships, and motivations within it.

Overall, The Lies I Tell, at its core, is a novel about family, secrets, manipulation, friendship, coercion, obsession, cunning behaviour, tragedy, hatred, and revenge. It’s a highly suspenseful, exceptionally clever tale by Clark that highlights everything is not always as it appears and is without a doubt one of the most gripping page-turners I’ve been lucky enough to read this year.

 

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

 

About Julie Clark

Julie Clark is the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight. It has earned starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, and the New York Times has called it “thoroughly absorbing”. It’s been named an Indie Next Pick, a Library Reads Pick, and a Best Book of 2020 by Amazon Editors and Apple Books. Her debut, The Ones We Choose, was published in 2018 and has been optioned for television by Lionsgate. She lives in Los Angeles with her two sons and a golden doodle with poor impulse control.

Photograph by Eric A. Reid Photogtaphy.

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#BookReview For Those Who Are Lost by Julia Bryan Thomas @AuthorJuliaT @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #ForThoseWhoAreLost #JuliaBryanThomas #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview For Those Who Are Lost by Julia Bryan Thomas @AuthorJuliaT @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #ForThoseWhoAreLost #JuliaBryanThomas #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: For Those Who Are Lost

Author: Julia Bryan Thomas

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jun. 14, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

One woman’s split-second decision on the eve of World War II will tear a family apart…

On the island of Guernsey, as WWII looms, many islanders make the heartbreaking choice to ship their children to safety in England, not knowing when (or if) they will be reunited. Acting on faith, Ava and Joseph Simon reluctantly send their 9-year-old son Henry and four-year-old daughter Catherine with their children’s teacher Helen, who will escort them to the mainland.

But Helen’s sister Lily is fleeing an abusive, childless marriage, and, just as the ferry is about to leave, she convinces her sister to let her take Helen’s place so that she can make a new start for herself. It is Lily who takes the children to England, and it is Lily who lets Henry get on a train by himself. But Lily has always wanted a child, and she’s unable to let Catherine go. So she decides to walk the other way, taking Catherine with her in her arms. That split-second decision impacts the lives of everyone long after the war ends.

Perfect for readers of Sold on a Monday, For Those Who Are Lost is at once heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and uplifting.

Review:

Pensive, charged, and atmospheric!

For Those Who Are Lost is a poignant, heart-wrenching tale set in England during WWII that takes you into the life of a handful of people whose lives are unimaginably changed one day when Ava and Joseph Simon allow their two children, Henry and Catherine, to evacuate the island of Guernsey, prior to occupation, in the hands of a young woman who unbeknownst to them is using the opportunity to flee her abusive husband and perhaps acquire that one child she’s always yearned for.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are distressed, 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, parenthood, separation, and war.

Overall, For Those Who Are Lost 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 completely gone. It’s a moving, alluring, impactful tale by Thomas that does a beautiful job of highlighting that survival of any kind often involves moral dilemmas, courage, strength, and beyond all else, inconceivable sacrifice.

 

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 Julia Bryan Thomas

Julia Bryan Thomas is the author of For Those Who Are Lost. She is married to mystery novelist Will Thomas.

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#BookReview Same Time, Same Place by David M. Barnett @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #SameTimeSamePlace #DavidMBarnett #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview Same Time, Same Place by David M. Barnett @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #SameTimeSamePlace #DavidMBarnett #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Same Time, Same Place

Author: David M. Barnett

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jun. 7, 2022

Genres: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 336

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8/10

An utterly charming and heart-warming love story and the perfect tonic for difficult times.

Daisy is the night security guard at the Manchester Museum of Social History. She takes her job very seriously, protecting the museum from teenage troublemakers.

Nate works the day shift, though he’d be more suited as a museum guide the way he chats with the visitors. Daisy doesn’t approve: how does he find it so easy to talk to strangers?

For five minutes each day, their shifts overlap at handover. It’s the only interaction they have…until mysterious things begin to happen at the museum. Daisy notices priceless objects going missing and then reappearing, with no explanation (and with nothing on the security footage!). No one believes her except Nate, and he agrees to help her investigate.

They soon discover they have a lot more in common than they realized…and their investigation uncovers not only the truth, but new possibilities for their future.

Review:

Cute, heartwarming, and light!

Same Time, Same Place is an amusing, enticing tale that takes you into the life of Daisy, a socially awkward, dedicated evening museum guard who, after stumbling upon some items periodically going missing from exhibit rooms and then surprisingly turning back up, requires a little help from her coworker Nate, a divorced father of one, to apprehend the culprit and solve the case.

The prose is light and witty. The characters are quirky, friendly, and scarred. And the plot is an engaging blend of friendship, family, introspection, deduction, attraction, childhood trauma, new beginnings, amateur sleuthing, and touching moments.

Overall, Same Time, Same Place is a funny, sweet, uplifting tale by Barnett that was a delight to read with its charming storyline and abundance of special characters I couldn’t help but root for.

 

This novel is available June 7, 2022!

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 David M. Barnett

David M. Barnett is a writer based in the North of England. He writes novels, like this one, and he also writes journalism, for places such as the Guardian, Independent, and the BBC. He writes comic books for DC and Archie among others. In fact, he'll pretty much write anything if you ask him nicely. He was born in a place called Wigan, near Manchester, and now lives in West Yorkshire, just over a hill from where the Bronte sisters dwelled. He was born in the 1970s, grew up in the 1980s, and spent his 20s in the 1990s, with all that entails.

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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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