So many amazing books have come out during 2018 and I suspect 2019 will be full of awesome reads as well. Here’s what has caught my eye recently!
Everyone who has read The Husband Hour by Jamie Brenner has raved about it! You will love it too. A widows life is interrupted by a documentary filmmaker, that is the premise of this book but of course, there is much more to the story!
This book focuses on the themes of love, loss, secrets, and forgiveness. I enjoy fiction like with substance, that’s not just a fluffy read!
Here’s the synopsis:
Lauren Adelman and her high school sweetheart, Rory Kincaid, are a golden couple. They marry just out of college as Rory, a star hockey player, earns a spot in the NHL. Their future could not look brighter when Rory shocks everyone-Lauren most of all-by enlisting in the U.S. Army. When Rory dies in combat, Lauren is left devastated, alone, and under unbearable public scrutiny.
Seeking peace and solitude, Lauren retreats to her family’s old beach house on the Jersey Shore. But this summer she’s forced to share the house with her overbearing mother and competitive sister. Worse, a stranger making a documentary about Rory tracks her down and persuades her to give him just an hour of her time.
One hour with filmmaker Matt Brio turns into a summer of revelations, surprises, and upheaval. As the days grow shorter and her grief changes shape, Lauren begins to understand the past-and to welcome the future.
If you enjoy books by Karen White and Elin Hilderbrand, you will love this one too!
I was instantly intrigued by the title and then when I read the plot, I knew I needed to get my hands on The Woman Who Kept Everything by Jane Gilley.
I absolutely love quirky books like The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry, The Rosie Project, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper. I highly recommend all of those books!
The Woman Who Kept Everything is a heartwarming story, we really need more books like this one. Here’s what you need to know:
79-year-old Gloria Frensham is a hoarder. She lives amongst piles of magazines, squashed cardboard boxes, surplus carpet rolls, heaps of towels and knick-knacks littering the stairs. She hasn’t left her home for years, until a loud bang and a sudden smell of singeing sets in motion Gloria’s unwilling exodus from her home…
That day is the start of a journey that will never return Gloria back to her beloved, hoarded possessions, nor to her son’s house to live. For it is the start of her journey to discover life again – and she’s going to make some good friends and defiant decisions along the way, with just one very small suitcase in tow…
This book comes out in early December and you can pre-order now. Only $1.99 on Kindle!
If you haven’t read Pam Jenoff’s books, do so immediately! She is one of the authors who can write a book and I know I will love it without knowing anything about it. If historical fiction is your thing, this is the book for you. Actually, all of Pam’s books are fantastic! She writes stories that make you cry, that glue you to the pages, bring you into the character’s lives and don’t let you go until long after the book is over.
The Lost Girls of Paris
1946, Manhattan
Grace Healey is rebuilding her life after losing her husband during the war. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, she finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.
Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a ring of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.
This book combines some of my favorite things- 1940’s, New York City, mystery, and excellent writing and turns it all into a five-star novel. You can pre-order now, due out in February 2019.
When you need a break from heavy thrillers and suspense novels, when you just want to LOL, Dinner Party by Tracy Bloom will put you in a happy mood. Its really difficult to write a story that is humorous, light, and engaging but Tracy manages to pull it off!
Each chapter in Dinner Party focuses on a different person, I always like seeing things from various points of view. Each character has their own little quirks, just like the people you know in real life…but funnier.
Here’s what its all about:
Three couples take it in turns to host a monthly dinner party. Beth, Sarah, and Marie have been friends forever. Now they are grown up, with busy lives, busy husbands, busy kids… but they still find time to meet up over dinner once a month. A cozy, comfortable gathering of happy couples – or so they thought.
Until one night, someone brings along a last-minute guest whose wife has just left him. Simon is standing on the doorstep in floods of tears. While the women do their best to console him, their husbands feel the need to mark their territory.
And as Simon becomes more involved with the group, his presence changes everything these three couples thought they knew about each other, leading to a final dinner party that no-one will ever forget.
Sidenote: I love a wicked British sense of humor!
Due out next week.
Jessica Strawser’s newest novel, Forget You Know Me is about two friends and a thread of mystery as to what happened to one of them. In the beginning chapters, the two women, separated by distance, are having a chat over webcam, hoping for a fun conversation and a chance to bond again. But when Molly steps away for a minute, Liza sees something scary and immediately calls the police. Worried about her friend, Liza drives for hours to make sure she’s okay.
But Liza is shocked when a very cold and not friendly Molly tells her everything is fine and not to worry. In fact, Molly is distant and Liza feels their friendship is over.
Did something happen or is Liza imagining things?
Here’s the full synopsis:
Liza and Molly are life-long best friends—or at least they used to be. Ever since Liza moved to Chicago to pursue her career, leaving Molly behind in Cincinnati with a husband and two kids, the distance between their two lives has grown more and more insurmountable. In a last-ditch effort to save their friendship, they arrange a “girls night” over webcam, wine in hand, catching up like they used to. But when Molly runs upstairs to check on a crying toddler, Liza watches, horror-struck, as a masked man enters the home of her best friend.
After calling the police, Liza frantically tries to reach Molly, but when she finally responds, her message is icy and terse, insisting that everything is fine. Liza is still convinced something is wrong—that her friend is in danger. But after an all-night drive to rescue her ends in a brutal confrontation, Liza is sure their friendship is over.
Meanwhile, Molly finds herself wondering whether she’s dodged one ruinous mistake only to make another in its place. Did she sacrifice her oldest friendship to save her marriage? Or has she inadvertently sacrificed both?
Liza and Molly can’t avoid each other forever, and soon, they’ll face a reckoning that will force them to decide just how much weight a shared history can carry.
I am only in the first half of this novel and I look forward to seeing how everything plays out.
What an amazing author! Alyson Richman is hugely talented and as I said about Pam Jenoff above, I will read anything she writes. I cannot speak highly enough of Alyson’s previous novels. If you haven’t read The Lost Wife then stop whatever it is you are doing and get it right now.
The Secret of Clouds is her new novel and it offers the reader sympathetic characters, an emotional storyline and of course, top-notch writing.
Check it out:
Katya, a rising ballerina, and Sasha, a graduate student, are young and in love when an unexpected tragedy befalls their native Kiev. Years later, after the couple has safely emigrated to America the consequences of this incident cause their son, Yuri, to be born with a rare health condition that isolates him from other children.
Maggie, a passionate and dedicated teacher agrees to tutor Yuri at his home, even though she is haunted by her own painful childhood memories. As the two forge a deep and soulful connection, Yuri’s boundless curiosity and unique wisdom inspires Maggie to make difficult changes in her own life. And she’ll never realize just how strong Yuri has made her — until she needs that strength the most..
I am eager to start this novel, it’s on my Kindle and ready to read this weekend. I have cleared my schedule and will be reading all day tomorrow and probably Sunday too. Due out on February 26th, you can pre-order now.
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