Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

#BookReview In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead @ashleywinstead @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #InMyDreamsIHoldaKnife #AshleyWinstead #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead @ashleywinstead @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #InMyDreamsIHoldaKnife #AshleyWinstead #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: In My Dreams I Hold a Knife

Author: Ashley Winstead

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Aug. 3, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 368

Format: ARC, eBook

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

Six friends.
One college reunion.
One unsolved murder.

A college reunion turns dark and deadly in this chilling and propulsive suspense novel about six friends, one unsolved murder, and the dark secrets they’ve been hiding from each other—and themselves—for a decade.

Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent—not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather’s murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she’d been closest to since freshman year. Ten years ago, everything fell apart, including the dreams she worked for her whole life—and her relationship with the one person she wasn’t supposed to love.

But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather’s murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years’ worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.

Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won’t be able to put down.

Review:

Creepy, unpredictable, and exceptionally gripping!

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife transports you into the life of successful NYC consultant, Jessica Miller, as she heads to her ten-year reunion at Duquette University, where the past will collide with the present, long-buried secrets will finally be unearthed, and the senseless murder of her roommate and fellow member of the East House Seven clique will finally be solved.

The writing is meticulous and tight. The characterization is spot on with a cast of characters that are insecure, self-involved, and secretive. And the plot using flashbacks and a back-and-forth, past/present style intertwines and unravels effortlessly into a machiavellian tale of manipulation, deception, lies, drama, callousness, jealousy, secrets, revelations, hatred, mayhem, and murder.

Overall, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife is a clever, sinister, fabulous debut by Winstead that kept me guessing from the very first page and left me chilled, entertained, pleasantly surprised, and eager to read whatever her remarkably devious mind manages to come up with next. 

 

This novel is available now.

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

              

 

 

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

 

About Ashley Winstead

Ashley Winstead holds a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature from Southern Methodist University and a B.A. in English and Art History from Vanderbilt University. She lives in Houston, TX, where she drinks red wine and dreams up novels.

Photo by Luis Noble.

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#BookReview All the Little Hopes by Leah Weiss @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AlltheLittleHopes #LeahWeiss #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview All the Little Hopes by Leah Weiss @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AlltheLittleHopes #LeahWeiss #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: All the Little Hopes

Author: Leah Weiss

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jul. 27, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

From the acclaimed author of If the Creek Don’t Rise comes a Southern story of friendship forged by books and bees, when the timeless troubles of growing up meet the murky shadows of World War II.

Deep in the tobacco land of North Carolina, nothing’s the same since the boys shipped off to war and worry took their place. Thirteen-year-old Lucy Brown is curious and clever, but she can’t make sense of it all. Then Allie Bert Tucker comes to town, an outcast with a complicated past, and Lucy believes that together they can solve crimes. Just like her hero, Nancy Drew.

That chance comes when a man goes missing, a woman stops speaking, and an eccentric gives the girls a mystery that takes them beyond the ordinary. Their quiet town, seasoned with honeybees and sweet tea, becomes home to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp—and more men go missing. The pair set out to answer the big question: do we ever really know who the enemy is?

Lush with Southern atmosphere, All The Little Hopes, is the story of two girls growing up while war creeps closer, blurring the difference between what’s right, what’s wrong, and what we know to be true.

Review:

Poignant, optimistic, and intriguing!

All the Little Hopes is a mysterious, heartwarming tale that sweeps you away to North Carolina in the early 1940s when war is raging overseas, “real bad men” seem to be disappearing in the small town of Riverton, and two thirteen-year-old girls from different backgrounds, Lucy Brown, an inquisitive young girl who yearns to be an amateur detective just like her favourite literary character, Nancy Drew, and Allie Bert Tucker, a young, poor girl with no formal education who is sent to live with her aunt after her mother dies during childbirth become the best of friends.

The prose is rich and expressive. The characters are quirky, curious, and vulnerable. And the plot is a heartfelt, coming-of-age tale about life, love, loneliness, heartbreak, war, loss, grief, guilt, hope, family, and friendship.

Overall, All the Little Hopes is a beautifully written, informative, absorbing tale with intriguing characters that I devoured from start to finish. It’s the first book I’ve had the chance to read by Weiss, but it definitely won’t be my last, and it is undoubtedly the perfect choice for anyone who loves the historical fiction genre.

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 Leah Weiss

Leah Weiss was born in North Carolina and lives in Virginia. She retired in 2015 from a 24-year career as an Executive Assistant at Virginia Episcopal School and published her debut novel, IF THE CREEK DON’T RISE in August, 2017; it has sold over 100,000 copies. ALL THE LITTLE HOPES will be released in July 2021. Leah writes full time, enjoys meeting with book clubs and speaking about finding the story and the characters to tell it.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The War Nurse by Tracey Enerson Wood @TraceyEnerson @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheWarNurse #TraceyEnersonWood #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The War Nurse by Tracey Enerson Wood @TraceyEnerson @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheWarNurse #TraceyEnersonWood #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The War Nurse

Author: Tracey Enerson Wood

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jul. 6, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

She asked dozens of young women to lay their lives on the line during the Great War. Can she protect them?

Superintendent of Nurses Julia Stimson must recruit sixty-five nurses to relieve the battle-worn British, months before American troops are ready to be deployed. She knows that the young nurses serving near the front lines of will face a challenging situation, but nothing could have prepared her for the chaos that awaits when they arrive at British Base Hospital 12 in Rouen, France. The primitive conditions, a convoluted, ineffective system, and horrific battle wounds are enough to discourage the most hardened nurses, and Julia can do nothing but lead by example―even as the military doctors undermine her authority and make her question her very place in the hospital tent.

When trainloads of soldiers stricken by a mysterious respiratory illness arrive one after the other, overwhelming the hospital’s limited resources, and threatening the health of her staff, Julia faces an unthinkable choice―to step outside the bounds of her profession and risk the career she has fought so hard for, or to watch the people she cares for most die in her arms.

Based on a true story, The War Nurse is a sweeping historical novel by international bestselling author Tracey Enerson Wood that takes readers on an unforgettable journey through WWI France.

Review:

Evocative, affecting, and incredibly absorbing!

The War Nurse is an immersive, fascinating tale set in German-Occupied France during WWI that takes you into the life of Julia Stimson, a young woman who recruits, trains, mentors, and guides sixty-four American nurses as they embark on a mission for the American Red Cross to take over the day-to-day duties of the Rouen base hospital from the departing British Expeditionary Force.

The prose is seamless and vivid. The characters are driven, courageous, and dependable. And the plot is an insightful, moving tale of life, loss, insecurities, self-discovery, heartbreak, determination, innovation, emerging medical practices, hope, loyalty, survival, and friendship.

Overall, The War Nurse is an alluring, rich, compelling novel by Tracey Enerson Wood that does a spectacular job of highlighting her incredible knowledge and research into this pioneering, historical figure whose remarkable life and contribution to the nursing field of medicine are often unknown, overlooked, or unfortunately long forgotten.

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

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

 

About Tracey Enerson Wood

Tracey Enerson Wood has always had a writing bug. While working as a Registered Nurse, starting her own Interior Design company, raising two children, and bouncing around the world as a military wife, she indulged in her passion as a playwright, screenwriter and novelist. She has authored magazine columns and other non-fiction, written and directed plays of all lengths, including Grits, Fleas and Carrots, Rocks and Other Hard Places, Alone, and Fog.

Her screenplays include Strike Three and Roebling’s Bridge.

Other passions include food and cooking, and honoring military heroes. Her co-authored anthology/cookbook Homefront Cooking, American Veterans share Recipes, Wit, and Wisdom, was released by Skyhorse Publishing in May, 2018, and all authors’ profits will be donated to organizations that support veterans.

A New Jersey native, she now lives with her family in Florida and Germany.

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#BookReview Hostage by Clare Mackintosh @claremackint0sh @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #Hostage #ClareMackintosh #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview Hostage by Clare Mackintosh @claremackint0sh @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #Hostage #ClareMackintosh #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Hostage

Author: Clare Mackintosh

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jun. 22, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 400

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

You can save hundreds of lives. Or the one that matters most.

A claustrophobic thriller set over twenty hours on one airplane flight, with the heart-stopping tension of The Last Flight and the wrenching emotional intensity of Room, Hostage takes us on board the inaugural nonstop flight from London to Sydney.

Mina is trying to focus on her job as a flight attendant, not the problems of her five-year-old daughter back home, or the fissures in her marriage. But the plane has barely taken off when Mina receives a chilling note from an anonymous passenger, someone intent on ensuring the plane never reaches its destination. Someone who needs Mina’s assistance and who knows exactly how to make her comply.

It’s twenty hours to landing. A lot can happen in twenty hours.

Review:

Intense, propulsive, and terrifyingly realistic!

Hostage is a menacing, locked-door thriller that sweeps you 35,000 feet up into the air and onto World Airways Flight 79 as it makes its inaugural 20-hour nonstop flight from London to Sydney with 353 excited passengers, a conscientious cabin crew, an attentive, desperate mother of a child targeted by terrorists, and a cunning, manipulative environmentalist who’s determined this flight may never reach its destination.

The prose is sharp and crisp. The characters are distraught, frightened, and courageous. And the plot told from multiple perspectives unfolds and unravels quickly into a suspenseful tale of unforeseen twists, well-timed surprises, moral dilemmas, mind games, manipulation, tension, unease, violence, and murder.

Overall, Hostage is without a doubt a clever, claustrophobic, masterfully plotted page-turner that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the very first page and ultimately leaves you surprised, shocked, thoroughly entertained, and if you’re like me, ready to start it all over again to figure out what you possibly could have missed the first time around.

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 Clare Mackintosh

Clare Mackintosh is an award-winning New York Times and international bestselling author. She spent twelve years on the police force in England and has written for Guardian (UK), Good Housekeeping, and other publications. Translated into forty languages, her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide. Clare lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.

Photo by Astrid di Crollalanza.

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#BookReview The Last Flight by Julie Clark @jclarkab @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheLastFlight #JulieClark #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Last Flight by Julie Clark @jclarkab @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheLastFlight #JulieClark #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Last Flight

Author: Julie Clark

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on May 4, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 288

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear.

Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he’s not above using his staff to track Claire’s every move, making sure she’s living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn’t know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.

A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets–Claire taking Eva’s flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it’s no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva’s identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

For fans of Lisa Jewell and Liv Constantine, The Last Flight is the story of two women–both alone, both scared–and one agonizing decision that will change the trajectory of both of their lives.

Review:

Propulsive, intense, and exhilarating!

The Last Flight is an alluring, character-driven thriller that immerses you into the lives of two strangers, Claire and Eva, as their worlds unravel, intersect, and collide while embarking on a mission to escape their dangerous and troubled pasts.

The prose is sharp and brisk. The characters are desperate, courageous, and strong. And the plot using flashbacks and a back-and-forth, past/present style creates tension and suspense as it unwinds piece-by-piece all the deception, secrets, histories, personalities, and relationships within it.

Overall, The Last Flight is an addictive, twisty, meticulously crafted page-turner by Clark that does a wonderful job of reminding us that every choice, good or bad, always has a consequence.

 

This book is available in paperback 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 Sweetshop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #SweetshopofDreams #JennyColgan #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview Sweetshop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #SweetshopofDreams #JennyColgan #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Sweetshop of Dreams

Author: Jenny Colgan

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Apr. 1, 2021

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction

Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A delicious rom-com about finding yourself and breaking out of routines, The Sweetshop of Dreams is full of tempting desserts, family secrets, and second chances.

Rosie Hopkins has gotten used to busy London life. It’s…comfortable. And though she might like a more rewarding career, and her boyfriend’s not exactly the king of romance, Rosie’s not complaining. And when she visits her Aunt Lilian’s small country village to help sort out her sweetshop, she expects it to be dull at best.

Lilian Hopkins has spent her life running Lipton’s sweetshop, through wartime and family feuds. When her great-niece Rosie arrives to help her with the shop, the last thing Lillian wants to slow down and wrestle with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully colored sweets.

But as Rosie gets Lilian back on her feet, breathes a new life into the candy shop, and gets to know the mysterious and solitary Stephen–whose family seems to own the entire town–she starts to think that settling for what’s comfortable might not be so great after all.

Review:

Quaint, Cosy, and deliciously sweet!

Sweetshop of Dreams is a delightfully uplifting tale that sweeps you away to the idyllic village of Lipton and immerses you into the lives of Rosie Hopkins, a young nurse who enjoys her life in London and is not entirely overjoyed to be heading to the English countryside to help her great-aunt recuperate and prepare her sweetshop to be sold, and Lillian Hopkins, an elderly woman who after running her family’s candy store for decades is determined to keep her memories at bay and a few long-buried secrets permanently hidden.

The prose is witty and light. The characters are quirky, sympathetic, and attentive. And the plot, set in both the 1940s as well as present-day, is a tender, heartfelt mix of life, love, family, friendship, self-reflection, history, happiness, romance, community, new beginnings, second chances, and of course, some truly scrumptious treats.

Overall, Sweetshop of Dreams is a hopeful, absorbing, charming tale by Colgan, and with its abundance of endearing characters and heartwarming storyline, it’s definitely one happy-every-after ending I’m glad I didn’t miss.

 

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 Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan was born in Scotland and has lived in London, the Netherlands, the U.S. and France. She eventually settled on the wettest of all of these places, and currently lives just North of Edinburgh with her husband Andrew, her dog Nevil Shute, and her three children: Wallace, who is 11 and likes pretending to be 19 and not knowing what this embarrassing ‘family’ thing is that keeps following him about; Michael-Francis, who is 9 and likes making new friends on aeroplanes, and Delphine who is 7 and is mostly raccoon as far as we can tell so far.

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#BookReview The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheSundayGirl #PipDrysdale #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheSundayGirl #PipDrysdale #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Sunday Girl

Author: Pip Drysdale

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Feb. 16, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 300

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8/10

Any woman who’s ever been involved with a bad, bad man and been dumped will understand what it feels like to be broken, broken-hearted, and bent on revenge.

Taylor Bishop is hurt, angry, and wants to destroy Angus Hollingsworth in the way he destroyed her: ‘Insidiously. Irreparably. Like a puzzle he’d slowly dissembled, stolen a couple of pieces from, and then discarded, knowing that nobody would ever be able to put it back together ever again.’

So Taylor consults The Art of War and makes a plan. Then she takes the next irrevocable step-one that will change her life forever.

Things start to spiral out of her control-and The Sunday Girlbecomes impossible to put down. It’s a tale of love gone wrong…and revenge done right.

Review:

Ominous, relentless and intense!

The Sunday Girl is a character-driven, domestic thriller that takes you into the life of Taylor Bishop, a 29-year-old analyst who decides to use the principles found in Tzu’s, The Art of War to damage, destroy, and ruin the life of Angus, her successful banker, boyfriend after he not only leaks a video onto the internet of her engaged in a threesome but also decides to take his previous ex, Kim on the holiday they had planned together.

The prose is taut and gritty. The characters are vulnerable, consumed, and ruthless. And the plot does a nice job of building tension and unease as it subtly intertwines and unravels an intricate tale of lies, secrets, abuse, control, manipulation, violence, and vengeance.

Overall, The Sunday Girl is a dark, unnerving, satisfying read that delves into how much relationships define us and reminds us that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

 

This novel is available in paperback 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 Pip Drysdale

Pip Drysdale is a writer, musician and actor who grew up in Africa and Australia. At 20 she moved to New York to study acting, worked in indie films and off-off Broadway theatre, started writing songs and made four records. After graduating with a BA in English, Pip moved to London where she played shows across Europe and started writing books. Her debut novel, The Sunday Girl, was a bestseller and has been published in the United States, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Strangers We Know was also a bestseller and is being developed for television. The Paris Affair is her third book.

Photo courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood @TraceyEnerson @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheEngineersWife #TraceyEnersonWood #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood @TraceyEnerson @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheEngineersWife #TraceyEnersonWood #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Engineer's Wife

Author: Tracey Enerson Wood

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Feb. 2, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

She built a monument for all time. Then she was lost in its shadow. Discover the fascinating woman who helped design and construct the Brooklyn Bridge.

Emily Roebling refuses to live conventionally—she knows who she is and what she wants, and she’s determined to make change. But then her husband asks the unthinkable: give up her dreams to make his possible.

Emily’s fight for women’s suffrage is put on hold, and her life transformed when her husband Washington Roebling, the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, is injured on the job. Untrained for the task, but under his guidance, she assumes his role, despite stern resistance and overwhelming obstacles. But as the project takes shape under Emily’s direction, she wonders whose legacy she is building—hers, or her husband’s. As the monument rises, Emily’s marriage, principles, and identity threaten to collapse. When the bridge finally stands finished, will she recognize the woman who built it?

Based on the true story of an American icon, The Engineer’s Wife delivers an emotional portrait of a woman transformed by a project of unfathomable scale, which takes her into the bowels of the East River, suffragette riots, the halls of Manhattan’s elite, and the heady, freewheeling temptations of P.T. Barnum. The biography of a husband and wife determined to build something that lasts—even at the risk of losing each other.

Review:

Immersive, insightful, and alluring!

The Engineer’s Wife is a fascinating tale that sweeps you away to 1870s New York and into the life of Emily Roebling, a young woman ahead of her time who is a suffragist at heart but due to the sudden loss of her father-in-law and her husband’s debilitation from caisson disease focuses her attention on overcoming the social constraints, corruption, and prejudices of the time to complete the construction of the infamous Brooklyn Bridge.

The prose is descriptive and rich. The characters are flawed, driven, and engaging. And the plot is a vivid, absorbing tale of life, loss, love, hope, greed, politics, family, sacrifices, tragedy, successes, and the intricacies of building a suspension bridge in the late 19th century.

Overall, The Engineer’s Wife is a nuanced, perceptive, well-written tale that does a beautiful job of highlighting Tracey Enerson Wood’s impressive research and considerable knowledge into this magnificent engineering feat that still graces the New York skyline today and the people who dared to imagine, design, and build it.

 

This novel is available in paperback on February 2, 2021.

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 Tracey Enerson Wood

Tracey Enerson Wood has always had a writing bug. While working as a Registered Nurse, starting her own Interior Design company, raising two children, and bouncing around the world as a military wife, she indulged in her passion as a playwright, screenwriter and novelist. She has authored magazine columns and other non-fiction, written and directed plays of all lengths, including Grits, Fleas and Carrots, Rocks and Other Hard Places, Alone, and Fog.

Her screenplays include Strike Three and Roebling’s Bridge.

Other passions include food and cooking, and honoring military heroes. Her co-authored anthology/cookbook Homefront Cooking, American Veterans share Recipes, Wit, and Wisdom, was released by Skyhorse Publishing in May, 2018, and all authors’ profits will be donated to organizations that support veterans.

A New Jersey native, she now lives with her family in Florida and Germany.

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#BookReview Love Songs for Skeptics by Christina Pishiris @ChristinaPi @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #LoveSongsforSkeptics #ChristinaPishiris

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#BookReview Love Songs for Skeptics by Christina Pishiris @ChristinaPi @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #LoveSongsforSkeptics #ChristinaPishiris Title: Love Songs for Skeptics

Author: Christina Pishiris

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jan. 5, 2021

Genres: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 416

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

For fans of Josie Silver and Emily Henry comes a debut rom-com about the life-changing magic of second chances.

Zoë Frixos gets the whole love song thing. Truly, she does. As an editor at a major music magazine in London, it’s part of her job description. But love? Let’s just say Zoë’s been a bit off-beat in that department. After falling hard for her best friend, Simon, at thirteen and missing every chance to tell him how she felt before he left town, Zoë came to one grand conclusion: Love stinks.

Twenty years later, Simon is returning to London, newly single and as charming as ever, and Zoë vows to take her second chance. But Zoë’s got other problems now: In order to save her magazine from closure, she has to land the biggest interview of her career with a notoriously elusive rock idol. There’s just one problem: Nick, the arrogant publicist who seems determined to stop the story and ruin Zoë’s life.

With her brother’s big(ish) fat(ish) Greek wedding on the horizon, Zoë begins to wonder if her first love is the right love. In the wake of a life-changing choice, Zoë must decide if she’s right to be skeptical about love, or if it’s time to change her tune…

This charming and quirky debut has it all: childhood friends, love triangles, enemies-to-lovers, and a My Big Fat Greek Wedding subplot.

Review:

Charming, comical, and delightfully uplifting!

Love Songs for Skeptics is a sweet, heartwarming tale that takes us into the life of the hardworking Zoë Frixos as she juggles her feelings for her newly returned, single best friend who she’s crushed on since she was thirteen, a cocky boy-bander with an overinflated ego, a potential interview with a famous, reclusive musician who could save her career, and a push-and-pull relationship with the arrogant, yet handsome publicist, Nick Jones.

The prose is sharp and fluid. The characters, including all the supporting characters, are multilayered, amusing and endearing. And the plot is a smart, engaging tale full of life, loss, love, tricky moments, awkward situations, quirky mishaps, delicious chemistry, romantic drama, tension, self-reflection, and a soundtrack of some of the most unforgettable, retro, love songs of all time. (Playlist can be found here:  )

Overall, Love Songs for Skeptics is a light, refreshing, entertaining debut by Pishiris that I thoroughly enjoyed and is the perfect choice for fans of contemporary romance novels that have a lot of humour, heart, and hope.

 

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 Christina Pishiris

Christina Pishiris was born in London to Greek Cypriot parents. She studied English at the University of Sussex and went on to become a journalist. When not writing her hobbies include compiling cheesy eighties playlists, coveting the neighbour’s cat, and writing protest letters to Guerlain after they discontinued her favourite perfume. LOVE SONGS FOR SCEPTICS is her first book.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister @theladygreer @Sourcebooks #TheArcticFury #GreerMacallister

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#BookReview The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister @theladygreer @Sourcebooks #TheArcticFury #GreerMacallister Title: The Arctic Fury

Author: Greer Macallister

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Dec. 1, 2020

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 407

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

In early 1853, experienced California Trail guide Virginia Reeve is summoned to Boston by a mysterious benefactor who offers her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: lead a party of 12 women into the wild, hazardous Arctic to search for the lost Franklin Expedition. It’s an extraordinary request, but the party is made up of extraordinary women. Each brings her own strengths and skills to the expedition- and her own unsettling secrets. A year and a half later, back in Boston, Virginia is on trial when not all of the women return. Told in alternating timelines that follow both the sensational murder trial in Boston and the dangerous, deadly progress of the women’s expedition into the frozen North, this heart-pounding story will hold readers rapt as a chorus of voices answer the trial’s all-consuming question: what happened out there on the ice?

Review:

Captivating, atmospheric, and immersive!

The Arctic Fury is an emotive, absorbing novel set in the mid-1850s that sweeps you back-and-forth between a Boston courtroom where Virginia Reeve is on trial for the kidnapping and murder of socialite Caprice Collins, one of twelve women who embarked on a northern expedition to find the missing Sir John Franklin, and the icy, cold, Arctic where friendships were formed, life was lost, secrets surfaced, and past tragedies haunted.

The writing is vivid and expressive. The plot is well crafted and uses a past-present style to create tension, suspense and emotion as it unravels all the histories, personalities, and relationships within it. And the characters are unique, troubled, and scarred; with the setting, the arctic wilderness, being a character itself with its harsh weather, isolation, and physical challenges.

Overall, The Arctic Fury, loosely based on real-life events, is an intense, unique, gripping novel that reminds us that survival of any form takes unimaginable sacrifice, strength, courage, and often ethical and moral dilemmas.

This book is available now. 

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

 

About Greer Macallister

Raised in the Midwest, Greer Macallister is a novelist, poet and playwright who earned her MFA in creative writing from American University. Her debut novel THE MAGICIAN'S LIE was a USA Today bestseller, an Indie Next pick, and a Target Book Club selection. Her novels GIRL IN DISGUISE (“a rip-roaring, fast-paced treat to read” - Booklist) and WOMAN 99 (“a nail biter that makes you want to stand up and cheer” - Kate Quinn) were inspired by pioneering 19th-century private detective Kate Warne and fearless journalist Nellie Bly, respectively. Her next book, THE ARCTIC FURY, is forthcoming from Sourcebooks in December 2020. A regular contributor to Writer Unboxed and the Chicago Review of Books, she lives with her family in Washington, DC.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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