2.7.2018 - Little Liar

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Clare Boyd for the opportunity to read and review her debut book - loved it!  To me, when I can't stop reading a book, carry it around with me just to read a couple more pages, that's a 5 star book - and this was totally that book.

Real domestic life, not the Facebook life, is not always easy and pretty.  Gemma and her husband, Peter, are busy navigating real life.  Gemma has a high-powered job that takes her away from her family for long days.  She relies on her husband, sitters, her mom and friends to help fill the void.  But if she were truthful, she needs the job and has so many doubts about her abilities to be a good mom. 

Ten-year-old Rosie is a difficult child, prone to screaming temper tantrums for Gemma.  So much so that they attract the attention of the next-door neighbor, Mira, who worries for Rosie's safety.  Mira has plenty of her own issues but can't let go of obsessing about Rosie and eventually calls the police, setting up a nightmare situation for Gemma who is accused of abuse.

This is just a great read - I couldn't wait to find out how it was going to turn out.  Don't miss this debut novel - and here's hoping that Ms Boyd is busy at work on her next book!

2.6.2018 - Look for Me

Many thanks to NetGalley, Dutton Publishing and Lisa Gardner for the opportunity to read and review her latest installment in the DD Warren detective series.  I don't know how I missed the previous book, Find Her, which featured Flora Dane, but Gardner does a great job catching you up so that this is also a perfect stand-alone book.

DD Warren is on the case where an entire family was ambushed and killed - except the eldest teenager daughter who is now on the run.  Warren is faced with trying to figure out all the pieces in solving this puzzle.  There are lots to choose from - the family wasn't perfect, the children had been placed in foster care, there was an ex-husband, and now the daughter is missing.  Helped in solving this crime is Flora Dane, a survivor of a heinous kidnapping whose mission in life is to teach others how to survive.

Just a great book to lose yourself in and try to figure out who done it and why!  Gardner continues to write great books time after time!

2.4.2018 - By The Book

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Julia Sonneborn for the opportunity to read and review this debut novel - really enjoyed it!  This is a retelling of Jane Austin's Persuasion, which I've never read, but a contemporary romance that's light and totally easy to get lost in.

Anne is an English professor at a college in California.  She has a mountain of student loan debt, is struggling to finish her book, and has been told that unless she gets it published, she won't get tenure and will lose her job.  On top of that, her dad is struggling with health issues.  So when the college announces a new president and it turns out to be her ex-fiancée, she becomes a bit overwhelmed.  A new visiting author helps to take her mind off her troubles.

This book is filled with real life - friendship, family, work and love - and spins it all into a really enjoyable read.  Kudos on a great debut - loved the cover too!

2.2.2018 - Force of Nature

Many thanks to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Jane Harper for the opportunity to read and review this book - amazing!  I'm so sad that I didn't read the first in this series - The Dry - even when it was such a smash hit last year.  I'm definitely going back to read it now!  However, you don't have to have read that book to get every bit of enjoyment you can out of Force of Nature.  It's a stand-alone book on its own merit.

5 women and 5 women go on a corporate retreat to the wilds of Australia for 5 days.  At the end of the time period, all of the men are awaiting the women's return.  Hours later, only 4 women emerge from the woods.  Each of the survivors tells their version of events but are they being truthful?  What really happened while they were lost in the woods? 

Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk, along with his partner Carmen, are called in to help investigate the woman's disappearance.  Could it have anything to do with a case they are working on that one of the women was helping with? 

The story is told in alternating time periods - the current investigation and the 5 days of the women's adventure into the wilderness.  This was so effective because we see the tension between the women and learn parts of each of their stories at the same time that the investigation is looking into these women.

Highly recommended - a great read that I couldn't put down.  I can't wait for the next one in this series - bravo!

1.31.2018 - The Great Alone

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Kristin Hannah for the opportunity to read and review her latest work - it is fabulous!  I'm a huge fan of Kristin Hannah's work and this will not disappoint.

Set in the early 1970s, this was a time when women couldn't get their own credit card without their husband's permission and domestic abuse was swept under the rug.  The Allbright family is always just scraping by - Ernt is a former POW in the Vietnam War and came back with what would now be diagnosed as PTSD - nightmares, violent attacks, unable to hold a job.  His wife Cora is still in love with the Ernt of Before and says that he is sick and you don't abandon someone if they are sick.  Daughter Leni is used to switching schools and constantly moving.  Ernt eventually moves them to Alaska - the Alaska that is so remote and beautiful but very inhospitable, especially to those unprepared for its own cruelties.  With the help of the close-knit community, the Allbrights start figuring out how to survive.  However, the long winters of almost all day darkness make Ernt worse.  Cora and Leni have to learn to navigate him and their new world.

This is the story of powerful strong women who roll up their shirtsleeves and do what needs to be done.  It's the story of love - and all the different forms that takes.  Hannah's beautiful writing literally transports you into the Alaskan wilderness where danger can come at any time but also speaks of a lifestyle that changes your soul.

Such an amazing book - highly recommended!

1.29.2018 - The Burial Society

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books and Nina Sadowsky for the opportunity to read and review this book - I loved it and couldn't put it down!

Like her first book, Just Fall, this is a finely-crafted psychological thriller but I liked it even better.  Constructed with short chapters and alternating points of view, this story is spooled out in a unique and totally satisfying way.  I especially loved the little precursors to each section.

I don't want to give too much away because you need to just read this book without knowing much!  Catherine is the "narrator" of this book and her portions of the story are told in first person.  She is in charge of The Burial Society - a secret organization that takes women out of abuse situations and sets them up with new lives. 

The plot centers around the Burrows family - dad Brian, mom Mallory - who had gone missing previously and presumed dead, son Jake, daughter Natalie as well as Uncle Frank, Brian's brother.  The rest of the chapters are told in the voices of this family.  The family is in Paris for Brian's job when another tragedy befalls.

There is a lot of mystery, secrets, intrigue going on in this book and I raced through it to figure it all out.  Enough said - read it!

1.27.2018 - The Girlfriend

Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the opportunity to read this thriller by Michelle Frances - soon to be a prime original series!  All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 5 stars!

Laura Cavendish has revolved her life around her son Daniel, now 24 and in medical school. Although Laura started her own production company, besides Daniel, her life is pretty empty. Very wealthy, her and her husband, Howard, are basically just going through the motions of a marriage - he golfs and has a mistress. When Daniel meets Cherry, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Laura is at first excited to meet her. Then she starts thinking that Cherry is a gold digger and only out for Daniel's money. Both women have their claws into Daniel and won't let go. Then Laura makes a fateful error and lies to Cherry. When Cherry discovers the deception, watch out.

Clear your schedules now and read this book before the series comes out - because you know the book is always better.  I literally could not put this one down because my heart was pounding to see what was going to happen next.  The creepiness continues to build throughout the book.  This is just a thrill ride - don't miss it!