Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

#BookReview The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb @msheatherwebb @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheNextShipHome #HeatherWebb #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb @msheatherwebb @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheNextShipHome #HeatherWebb #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Next Ship Home

Author: Heather Webb

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Feb. 8, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Ellis Island, 1902: Two women band together to hold America to its promise: “Give me your tired, your poor…”

Ellis Island, 1902. Francesca arrives on the shores of America, her sights set on a better life than the one she left in Italy. That same day, aspiring linguist Alma reports to her first day of work at the immigrant processing center. Ellis, though, is not the refuge it first appears thanks to President Roosevelt’s attempts to deter crime. Francesca and Alma will have to rely on each other to escape its corruption and claim the American dreams they were promised.

A thoughtful historical inspired by true events, this novel probes America’s history of prejudice and exclusion—when entry at Ellis Island promised a better life but often delivered something drastically different, immigrants needed strength, resilience, and friendship to fight for their futures.

Review:

Fascinating, compelling, and memorable!

The Next Ship Home is an immersive tale that sweeps you away to New York City during 1902 and into the life of two women, Francesca Ricci, a young Italian girl who dreams of a better life in America only to suffer persecution and unimaginable loss in the shadows of the statue of liberty, and Alma Brauer, a young American woman with a passion for languages and a new job on Elis Island that, she quickly learns is not a place for immigrants to feel welcome and supported, but rather a building where corruption is rampant and abuse is prolific.

The prose is vivid and rich. The characters are flawed, driven, and engaging. And the plot is a poignant, tender tale of life, loss, love, hope, prejudice, politics, family, sacrifices, tragedy, abusive power, successes, and female friendship.

Overall, The Next Ship Home is an absorbing, moving, beautifully written tale by Webb inspired by real-life events that, at its heart, highlights that sometimes a little kindness, a bit of luck, and a lot of hard work and determination can make a world of difference, and reminds us that even though we’ve come so far when it comes to exclusion and racism, we still have a ways to go.

 

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

 

About Heather Webb

Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of seven historical novels. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was a Goodread’s Top Pick, and in 2018, Last Christmas in Paris won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. Meet Me in Monaco, was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Goldsboro RNA award in the UK, as well as the 2019 Digital Book World’s Fiction prize. To date, Heather’s books have been translated to sixteen languages. She lives in New England with her family, a mischievous kitten, and one feisty rabbit.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview Where I Can’t Follow by Ashley Blooms @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #WhereICantFollow #AshleyBlooms #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview Where I Can’t Follow by Ashley Blooms @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #WhereICantFollow #AshleyBlooms #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Where I Can't Follow

Author: Ashley Blooms

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Feb. 15, 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Women's Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

Walk through the door and leave all your problems behind…but you don’t know what’s on the other side. And once you leave, you’ll never come back. Will you go through?

Maren Walker told herself she wouldn’t need to sell pills for long, that it was only means to an end. But that end seems to be stretching as far away as the other side of Blackdamp County, Kentucky. There’s always another bill for Granny’s doctor, another problem with the car, another reason she’s getting nowhere.

She dreams of walking through her little door to leave it all behind. The doors have appeared to the people in her mountain town for as long as anyone can remember, though no one knows where they lead. All anyone knows is that if you go, you’ll never come back.

Maren’s mother left through her door when Maren was nine, and her shadow has followed Maren ever since. When she faces the possibility of escaping her struggles for good, Maren must choose just what kind of future she wants to build.

From critically acclaimed author Ashley Blooms, Where I Can’t Follow explores the forces that hold people in place, and how they adapt, survive, and struggle to love a place that doesn’t always love them back.

Review:

Heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, and memorable!

Where I Can’t Follow is an incredibly moving novel that takes us to small-town Kentucky where emotions run high, tragedy seems to strike, poverty is the norm, opioid addiction is rampant, hope appears futile, and the door to an easier, happier place always seems to be floating nearby.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are raw, fragile, and conflicted. And the plot is a sobering, compelling tale of life, love, loss, family, friendship, addiction, mental illness, suicidal ideation, socioeconomic depression, desperation, self-preservation, survival and a touch of magical realism.

Overall, Where I Can’t Follow made me think, made me feel, and resonated with me long after the final page. It’s a unique, emotional, absorbing tale by Blooms that is an excellent reminder that thorns can prick, roots can turn rotten, growth requires nurturing and love, and believing you’re worthy goes a long way when the road ahead seems hopeless and daunting.

 

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 Ashley Blooms

Ashley Blooms is the author of Where I Can’t Follow, which was named a Most Anticipated novel by Good Housekeeping, Gizmodo, and Tor.com, among others. Her debut novel, Every Bone a Prayer, was long-listed for the Crook’s Corner Book Prize. She’s a graduate of the Clarion Writer’s Workshop and received her MFA as a John and Renee Grisham Fellow from the University of Mississippi. Her fiction has appeared in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Strange Horizons, among others.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #HerHiddenGenius #MarieBenedict #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #HerHiddenGenius #MarieBenedict #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Her Hidden Genius

Author: Marie Benedict

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jan. 25, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie and The Only Woman in the Room.

Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider―brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments. When she is assigned to work on DNA, she believes she can unearth its secrets.

Rosalind knows if she just takes one more X-ray picture―one more after thousands―she can unlock the building blocks of life. Never again will she have to listen to her colleagues complain about her, especially Maurice Wilkins who’d rather conspire about genetics with James Watson and Francis Crick than work alongside her.

Then it finally happens―the double helix structure of DNA reveals itself to her with perfect clarity. But what unfolds next, Rosalind could have never predicted.

Review:

Captivating, insightful, and absorbing!

Her Hidden Genius is an informative, heart-tugging tale set in Paris and England between 1947 and 1958 that takes you into the life of Rosalind Franklin, a young woman from an influential Jewish family whose intellect and love of science drove her to forgo an easier socialite lifestyle to wade into a male-dominated, mostly exclusionary field where she used her exceptional knowledge and unparalleled work ethic in X-ray crystallography to identify the base, double-helix structure of DNA before it, ultimately, led to her premature death at the tender age of 37. 

The prose is rich and smooth. The characters are intelligent, dedicated, and lonely. And the plot is a somewhat poignant tale of one woman’s personal and workplace relationships, struggles, disappointments, accomplishments, challenges, and achievements.

I have to admit, shockingly as a science major, that I knew very little about Rosalind Franklin when I started Her Hidden Genius, but Benedict did such a lovely job of blending historical facts with compelling fiction that I was left fascinated, impressed, and highly entertained, and more than a little intrigued to learn more about this strong-minded, extraordinary woman who has for far too long been overlooked or not credited for the remarkable impact she had on the twentieth-century advancements in science we all continue to reap the benefits of today.

 

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

 

About Marie Benedict

Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms and Fortune 500 companies. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus on history and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. She is the author of New York Times bestseller The Only Woman in the Room, Carnegie's Maid, The Other Einstein, and Lady Clementine. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson @shaunarobs @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #MustLoveBooks #ShaunaRobinson #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson @shaunarobs @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #MustLoveBooks #ShaunaRobinson #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Must Love Books

Author: Shauna Robinson

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jan. 18, 2022

Genres: Women's Fiction

Pages: 336

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8/10

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill meets Younger in a heartfelt debut following a young woman who discovers she’ll have to ditch the “dream job” and write her own story to find her happy ending.

Meet Nora Hughes—the overworked, underpaid, last bookish assistant standing. At least for now.

When Nora landed an editorial assistant position at Parsons Press, it was her first step towards The Dream Job. Because, honestly, is there anything dreamier than making books for a living? But after five years of lunch orders, finicky authors, and per my last emails, Nora has come to one grand conclusion: Dream Jobs do not exist.

With her life spiraling and the Parsons staff sinking, Nora gets hit with even worse news. Parsons is cutting her already unlivable salary. Unable to afford her rent and without even the novels she once loved as a comfort, Nora decides to moonlight for a rival publisher to make ends meet…and maybe poach some Parsons’ authors along the way.

But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling Parsons author no one can afford to lose is thrown into the mix, Nora has to decide where her loyalties lie. Her new Dream Job, ever-optimistic Andrew, or…herself and her future.

Review:

Heartwarming, engaging, and introspective!

Must Love Books is a lighthearted, thoughtful tale that takes you on a journey into the life of editorial assistant Nora Hughes as she navigates career uncertainty, financial struggles, demanding expectations, mental illness, and a budding new relationship.

The prose is sincere and light. The characters are multi-layered, kind, and lonely. And the plot is a genuine, soul-searching tale filled with hope, friendship, awkward moments, depression, suicidal ideation, contentment, happiness, and the ups and downs of life in the publishing world.

Overall, Must Love Books is a sweet, tender, delightful story by Robinson that, for the most part, kept me captivated and invested in both the characters and the situations and was a good reminder that life is about taking chances, moving on, discovering one’s true self at any age, and most importantly asking for help whenever we need it.

 

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 Shauna Robinson

Shauna Robinson’s love of books led her to try a career in publishing before deciding she’d rather write books instead. Originally from San Diego, she now lives in Virginia with her husband and their sleepy greyhound. Shauna is an introvert at heart—she spends most of her time reading, baking, and figuring out the politest way to avoid social interaction. Must Love Books is her debut novel.

Photo by Rachel E.H. Photography.

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#BookReview True Crime Story by Joseph Knox @josephknox__ @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TrueCrimeStory #JosephKnox #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview True Crime Story by Joseph Knox @josephknox__ @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TrueCrimeStory #JosephKnox #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: True Crime Story

Author: Joseph Knox

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Dec. 7, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 400

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 10/10

THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!

What happens to all the girls who go missing?

The thrilling story of a university student’s sudden disappearance, the woman who became obsessed with her case, and the crime writer who uncovered the chilling truth about what happened…

In 2011, Zoe Nolan walked out of her dormitory in Manchester and was never seen or heard from again. Her case went cold. Her story was sad, certainly, but hardly sensational, crime writer Joseph Knox thought. He wouldn’t have given her any more thought were it not for his friend, Evelyn Mitchell. Another writer struggling to come up with a new idea, Evelyn was wondering just what happened to all the girls who go missing. What happened to the Zoe Nolans of the world?

Evelyn began investigating herself, interviewing Zoe’s family and friends, and emailing Joseph with chapters of the book she was writing with her findings. Uneasy with the corkscrew twists and turns, Joseph Knox embedded himself in the case, ultimately discovering a truth more tragic and shocking than he could have possibly imagined…

Just remember: Everything you read is fiction.

Review:

Mystifying, intricate, and tight!

True Crime Story is an edgy, intense mystery that introduces us to the tenacious writer Evelyn Mitchell as she endeavours to solve the cold case of missing nineteen-year-old Manchester University student, Zoe Nolan, by interviewing her old friends, roommates, and family and with the occasional support of fellow writer Joseph Knox, seven years after she vanished one night without a trace.

The writing style is calculated and unconventional. The characters are consumed, impressionable, impulsive, and flawed. And the plot, using a past/present, back-and-forth style and told from multiple POVs, builds nicely to create just the right amount of tension and suspense, as it unravels all the manipulative personalities, duplicitous actions, questionable motivations, and complex relationships within it.

So I’m not such whether to be incredibly impressed with Knox for his ability to create and compose this story, and of course for his good taste in lead characters’ names, or totally unnerved that he actually thought this whole thing up and was able to keep it all straight. That takes some serious skill. True Crime Story is creative, unique, mind-blowing, and without a doubt, a brilliantly crafted story that I knew from the very first page was fiction but still went to Google at least three times searching for more information on the victim of this crime. Honestly, this book needs to be read to be truly appreciated, and I challenge you to read it and not search the internet at least once for the unfortunate “Zoe Nolan.”

 

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 Joseph Knox

Joseph Knox was born and raised in and around Stoke and Manchester, where he worked in bars and bookshops before moving to London. He reads, writes, and runs compulsively. His novels have been translated into 14 languages.

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#BookReview The Secret Next Door by Rebecca Taylor @RebeccaAuthor @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheSecretNextDoor #RebeccaTaylor #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Secret Next Door by Rebecca Taylor @RebeccaAuthor @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheSecretNextDoor #RebeccaTaylor #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Secret Next Door

Author: Rebecca Taylor

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Nov. 9, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8/10

How well do you really know your neighbors?

Alyson Tinsdale is giving her son the childhood she never had: a stable family, a loving home, and a great school in a safe neighborhood.

Bonnie Sloan is the neighborhood matriarch. With her oldest son headed to Yale, and her youngest starting kindergarten, Bonnie is now pursuing her own long-held political aspirations despite private family struggles.

When the open space behind some of the most expensive homes gets slated for development into an amusement facility, the neighborhood becomes deeply divided. The personal pressures and community conflicts ratchet with every passing day, but it’s when a thirteen-year-old is found dead beside the neighborhood lake that simmering tensions boil over into panic.

Gossip flows, lies are exposed, and accusations are made as cracks run through the community’s once solid foundations. The neighborhood’s faith in exterior appearances is eclipsed by the secrets every house keeps. And as Bonnie and Alyson fight to keep their children safe and their messy personal lives from becoming neighborhood knowledge, it becomes clear that their neighbors might not be who they appear to be.

Fans of Lisa Jewell and Wendy Walker will love this fast-paced, engrossing novel that reminds us that nothing and no one are ever as perfect as they seem.

Review:

Edgy, eerie, and tight!

The Secret Next Door is a captivating, psychological thrill ride that introduces us to Alyson, a young mother who is excited to move into a new home with her husband and five-year-old son until the neighbours of this coveted community seem a be a little more distant and unfriendly than they first appeared, her son has more than a few issues fitting in at the local school, her marriage starts to become unbearably strained, and the thirteen-year-old-son of one of the most popular families in the area suddenly turns up dead.

The writing is brisk and intense. The characters are consumed, overwhelmed, and flawed. And the plot is a suspenseful, sinister tale of secrets, deception, gossip, tragedy, politics, suspicions, revelations, mayhem, fractured relationships, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Secret Next Door is an atmospheric, devious, unnerving page-turner by Taylor that does a wonderful job of highlighting just how easily people can sometimes allow themselves to be psychologically and emotionally manipulated, and reminds us that even the people we think we know so well often have deep, dark secrets they choose to hide.

 

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 Rebecca Taylor

Rebecca Taylor was born to a single British teen during a February blizzard in Green Bay, Wisconsin. When she was three, her mother met and married a US Marine. Like many children of military families, Rebecca spent the next fifteen years of her life moving. From Canada to Okinawa, and then all over the United States, she attended eight different schools before graduating high school.

Given that, she didn’t really understand how people managed to stay in one place for more than twelve months. So, she spent her twenties working as an international flight attendant while pursuing degrees in psychology and sociology. It wasn’t until she was pregnant with her first child and working on her graduate degree in psychology that she began writing fiction.

Rebecca has since written eight novels: ASCENDANT won the Colorado Book Award in 2014, and AFFECTIVE NEEDS was a finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA Award in 2017. HER PERFECT LIFE was her first work of psychological fiction and was published by Sourcebooks in 2020.

THE SECRET NEXT DOOR will release from Sourcebooks on November 9th, 2021.

Thankfully, Rebecca did eventually learn how to sit and stay. She currently lives in sunny Colorado with her husband, two teens, two dogs, two cats, two fish…there seems to be something about the number two for her.

Photo by Yvonne Min.

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#BookReview The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian @KellyMustian @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheGirlsintheStiltHouse #KellyMustian #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian @KellyMustian @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheGirlsintheStiltHouse #KellyMustian #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Girls in the Stilt House

Author: Kelly Mustian

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Apr. 6, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Set in 1920s Mississippi, this debut Southern novel weaves a beautiful and harrowing story of two teenage girls cast in an unlikely partnership through murder—perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing and If the Creek Don’t Rise.

Ada promised herself she would never go back to the Trace, to her hard life on the swamp and her harsh father. But now, after running away to Baton Rouge and briefly knowing a different kind of life, she finds herself with nowhere to go but back home. And she knows there will be a price to pay with her father.

Matilda, daughter of a sharecropper, is from the other side of the Trace. Doing what she can to protect her family from the whims and demands of some particularly callous locals is an ongoing struggle. She forms a plan to go north, to pack up the secrets she’s holding about her life in the South and hang them on the line for all to see in Ohio.

As the two girls are drawn deeper into a dangerous world of bootleggers and moral corruption, they must come to terms with the complexities of their tenuous bond and a hidden past that links them in ways that could cost them their lives.

Review:

Gritty, immersive, and powerful!

The Girls in the Stilt House is a captivating, moving tale that sweeps you away to the heat, humidity and stickiness of the 1920s Mississippi swamplands and into the lives of two teenage girls, Ada Morgan, a young white girl, pregnant and alone, who with nowhere else to turn reluctantly returns home to a sadistic father with a penchant for cruelty, and Matilda Patterson, the black daughter of a sharecropper who spends her time writing of the ongoing prejudice and poverty found in the south while dreaming of moving to the north, two girls from completely different backgrounds who after a moment of shared violence are bound together forever.

The prose is eloquent and descriptive. The characters are raw, tormented, and fragile. And the plot is a heart-tugging tale of life, love, violence, hardship, terror, racism, dreams, resilience, loss, hope, redemption, and survival.

The Girls in the Stilt House is a perceptive, compelling, fabulous debut by Mustian that is an excellent reminder that compassion, kindness, and strength come in many forms that ultimately transcend socioeconomics, skin colour, and the deepest, darkest of realities.

 

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 Kelly Mustian

Kelly Mustian grew up in Natchez, Mississippi, the southern terminus of the historic Natchez Trace. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and commercial magazines, and her short fiction has won a Blumenthal Writers and Readers Series Award. She is a past recipient of a Regional Artist Grant from the North Carolina Arts and Science Council. Kelly currently lives with her family near the foothills of North Carolina. The Girls in the Stilt House is her debut novel.

Photo by Rachelle Thompson.

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#BookReview Girls With Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier & Wendy Katzman @Sourcebooks @katzndobs @sbkslandmark #GirlsWithBrightFutures #KatznDobs #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview Girls With Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier & Wendy Katzman @Sourcebooks @katzndobs @sbkslandmark #GirlsWithBrightFutures #KatznDobs #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Girls With Bright Futures

Author: Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Feb. 2, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 416

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Three women. Three daughters. And a promise that they’ll each get what they deserve.

College admissions season at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Academy is marked by glowing acceptances from top-tier institutions, and students as impressive as their parents are ambitious. But when Stanford alerts the school it’s allotting only one spot to EBA for their incoming class, three mothers discover the competition is more cutthroat than they could have imagined.

Tech giant Alicia turns to her fortune and status to fight for her reluctant daughter’s place at the top. Kelly, a Stanford alum, leverages her PTA influence and insider knowledge to bulldoze the path for her high-strung daughter. And Maren makes three: single, broke, and ill-equipped to battle the elite school community aligning to bring her superstar daughter down.

That’s when, days before applications are due, one of the girls suffers a near-fatal accident, one that doesn’t appear to be an accident at all.

As the community spirals out of control, three women will have to decide what lines they’re willing to cross to secure their daughters’ futures…and keep buried the secrets that threaten to destroy far more than just college dreams.

Review:

Menacing, intricate, and shrewd!

Girls With Bright Futures is a sinister tale that introduces us to Marin Presley, a hardworking, single mother who, after struggling to put clothes on their back, is proud to have been able to have her daughter, now a senior, attend the prestigious, competitive Elliott Bay Academy. But when her daughter, Winnie, is the victim of a hit-and-run, and the one covetous spot left up for grabs at Stanford seems to have been the cause, secrets begin crawling out of the woodwork, and at least three families will be irrevocably changed forever.

The prose is tight and intense. The characters are driven, secretive, and aggressive. And the plot told from multiple perspectives unravels and intertwines effortlessly into a suspenseful tale of deception, manipulation, jealousy, secrets, power, privilege, revelations, gossip, innuendos, mayhem, and malicious behaviours.

Overall, Girls With Bright Futures is a tight, unpredictable, satisfying thrill ride by Dobmeier and Katzman that reminds us that a sense of entitlement and ruthless ambition can often be a dangerous combination and even though one might think this is an outrageously unbelievable plot, recent headlines, unfortunately, prove to differ, and for this mother of two college students, I’m happy to say my experience was definitely a little less dramatic.

 

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 Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman

Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman have been great friends for over 20 years. Their friendship has sustained them through the ups and downs of raising kids, juggling careers, and creating new family traditions. GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES, their debut novel, is a dark, suspenseful journey into the cutthroat world of college admissions that will release on February 2nd, 2021. Between the two of them, they have undergraduate degrees from Princeton University and the University of Michigan, a law degree from UC Berkeley, careers in marketing, non-profit leadership and biotechnology law, two husbands, and four kids (three of whom have survived the college admissions process without a single parent landing in jail).

Photo by Kristen Sycamore Photography.

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#BookReview The Last Mona Lisa by Jonathan Santlofer @jsantlofer @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheLastMonaLisa #JonathanSantlofer #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Last Mona Lisa by Jonathan Santlofer @jsantlofer @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheLastMonaLisa #JonathanSantlofer #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Last Mona Lisa

Author: Jonathan Santlofer

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Aug. 17, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 400

Format: Hardcover

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

August, 1911: The Mona Lisa is stolen by Vincent Peruggia. Exactly what happens in the two years before its recovery is a mystery. Many replicas of the Mona Lisa exist, and more than one historian has wondered if the painting now in the Louvre is a fake, switched in 1911.

Present day: art professor Luke Perrone digs for the truth behind his most famous ancestor: Peruggia. His search attracts an Interpol detective with something to prove and an unfamiliar but curiously helpful woman. Soon, Luke tumbles deep into the world of art and forgery, a land of obsession and danger.

A gripping novel exploring the 1911 theft and the present underbelly of the art world, The Last Mona Lisa is a suspenseful tale, tapping into our universal fascination with da Vinci’s enigma, why people are driven to possess certain works of art, and our fascination with the authentic and the fake.

Review:

Rich, absorbing, and remarkably atmospheric!

The Last Mona Lisa is an alluring, fascinating tale predominantly set in Paris during 1911, as well as present-day Florence, that takes us into the lives of Vincent Peruggia, a young man who, after losing his wife suddenly to illness, will do whatever it takes to earn enough money to be reunited with his son, as well as his great-grandson Luke Perrone, an art historian who is consumed with all things Mona Lisa who heads to Italy to find his great grandfather’s long-lost journal to discover once and for all why he stole the painting, where it was kept for the two years before it was returned, and ultimately, before everyone who knows about the journal, including himself, ends up dead, finally discover whether the original or merely a fake is now actually hanging in the infamous museum.

The writing is polished and descriptive. The characters are flawed, vulnerable, and driven. And the plot, alternating between timelines, unravels and intertwines quickly into an ominous tale of life, loss, family, self-discovery, secrets, lies, deception, greed, friendship, heartbreak, addiction, obsession, murder, as well as the beautiful, intricate details involved in creating, forging, and restoring artwork.

Overall, The Last Mona Lisa is an evocative, immersive, thrilling novel by Santlofer that’s not only a love letter to Renaissance art and the cities of Florence and Paris but a suspenseful tale steeped in historical fact and compelling fiction that I absolutely devoured and highly recommend.

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 an exchange for an honest review.

 

About Jonathan Santlofer

Jonathan Santlofer is a writer and artist. His debut novel, THE DEATH ARTIST, was an international bestseller translated into 17 languages, a People Magazine "Page-Turner of the Week" and is currently in development at Fox, along with his second and third novels. His fourth novel, ANATOMY OF FEAR, won the Nero Award for best crime novel of 2009. Jonathan created the Crime Fiction Academy as The Center for Fiction. As an artist, Jonathan has been making replications of famous paintings for wealthy clients for more than 20 years.

Photo by Clarke Tolton.

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#BookReview The Night We Burned by S.F. Kosa @sarahfinebooks @RaincoastBooks @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheNightWeBurned #SFKosa #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Night We Burned by S.F. Kosa @sarahfinebooks @RaincoastBooks @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheNightWeBurned #SFKosa #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Night We Burned

Author: S.F. Kosa

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Aug. 10, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 368

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Raincoast Books, Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8/10

A new psychological thriller from suspense powerhouse S.F. Kosa featuring a decades-old secret, a mysterious cult fire, and a woman looking to outrun the ashes of her past…until they come roaring back once more.

Dora is always aware of the line between fact and fiction. As a fact checker at an online magazine, her job depends on it. And as a woman outrunning her secrets, so does her life. But when a murder crops up in her old town, one linked to a deadly fire at a cult compound twenty years prior, suddenly all of Dora’s carefully spun deceptions are at risk.

Because she’s seen a murder like this before. She knows what the police missed.
And if she doesn’t stop the story, she may be next.

As Dora follows the journalist, altering facts to hide her identity along the way, she’s thrown back into a world she tried desperately to leave behind. One of ritual and belonging, of danger and darkness. A world where two girls promised to help each other through…until it all went up in flames.

And Dora knows, she won’t be lucky enough to escape twice.

Review:

Simmering, eerie, and intense!

The Night We Burned is a gripping, suspenseful thriller that takes you to Bend, Oregon and into the lives of multiple acquaintances, including journalist fact-checker Dora Rodriguez as their pasts come back to haunt them twenty years after they first crossed paths as fellow members of the Oracles of Innocence cult before it all went up in flames.

The writing is edgy and tight. The characters are consumed, deceitful, and troubled. And the plot using flashbacks and a back-and-forth style immerses you in an ominous tale full of twists, turns, secrets, obsession, mayhem, deduction, abuse, violence, childhood trauma, swirling emotions, shocking revelations, and murder.

Overall, The Night We Burned is a twisty, unpredictable, sinister page-turner that transports you into the darkest corners of the human psyche and takes you on a roller coaster ride of psychological manipulation, control, indoctrination, corruption, and deviant ideologies.

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

 

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

 

About S.F. Kosa

Sarah Fine/SF Kosa is the author of twenty-three trade-published novels, including twelve YA novels, three adult urban fantasy trilogies, and most recently, two adult psychological suspense novels: The Quiet Girl (which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly) and the upcoming The Night We Burned (Sourcebooks, August 10, 2021). With a PhD in clinical psychology, Sarah has a penchant for exploring the darker side of human nature and experience in her books, which range from fantastical to poignantly realistic. When she’s not writing or psychologizing, she enjoys hiking, cooking, and playing countless rounds of One Night Werewolf with her husband and five rapidly growing children (okay, they’re actually teenagers and young adults now).

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