The Runaway Orphans by Pam Weaver is the type of historical fiction that I absolutely love. This was just an enjoyable, yet emotional read with an interesting mix of characters and a setting I would love to visit, a seaside town in England.
SYNOPSIS
Desperate to escape their stepfather’s house, sisters Amy and Lillian stow away aboard a train full of children being evacuated from London and the threat of Hitler’s bombs.
Arriving in the seaside town of Worthing, they are taken in by kindly Norah and her husband Jim.
With their future now entrusted to strangers, can the girls finally find a safe harbor in these dark days of war? And will they find the strength to confront what they have been running from, when their past finally catches up with them?
If you are a fan of historical fiction, you will definitely want to get this book. It comes out on July 7.
Fiona Barton is one of my favorite authors and I devoured her novel, The Suspect, and could not wait for her next book. Well, it’s coming soon! Her newest novel is called Local Gone Missing and will be published on June 14!
SYNOPSIS
Elise King is a successful and ambitious detective—or she was before a medical leave left her unsure if she’d ever return to work. She now spends most days watching the growing tensions in her small seaside town of Ebbing—the weekenders renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes.
Elise can only guess what really happens behind closed doors. But Dee Eastwood, her house cleaner, often knows. She’s an invisible presence in many of the houses in town, but she sees and hears everything.
The conflicts boil over when a newcomer wants to put the town on the map with a weekend music festival, and two teenagers overdose on drugs. When a man disappears the first night of the festival, Elise starts digging for answers. Ebbing is a small town, but it’s full of secrets and hidden connections that run deeper and darker than Elise could have ever imagined.
This novel has a past/present timeline combined with multiple points of view so I got slightly confused when I stopped reading and then started the next day. I really liked the interesting and multidimensional character, Elise. This is a solid read and one that I know Fiona’s fans will enjoy!
The Nurse’s Secret by Amanda Skenandore left me wanting to learn more about the history of Bellevue! I loved this historical fiction book that grabbed my attention and didn’t let go. It was well written with rich details of medicine in the 1880s.
From the opening chapters detailing scrappy Una’s life on the streets, I was taken in by her story and the circumstances which led her to nursing. Her goal was to hide out from the police by attending classes but she found out that she was actually good at it. Of course, nothing is ever smooth sailing…
SYNOPSIS
Based on Florence Nightingale’s nursing principles, Bellevue is the first school of its kind in the country. Where once nurses were assumed to be ignorant and unskilled, Bellevue prizes discipline, intellect, and moral character, and only young women of good breeding need apply. At first, Una balks at her prim classmates and the doctors’ endless commands. Yet life on the streets has prepared her for the horrors of injury and disease found on the wards, and she slowly gains friendship and self-respect.
Just as she finds her footing, Una’s suspicions about a patient’s death put her at risk of exposure, and will force her to choose between her instinct for self-preservation, and exposing her identity in order to save others.
This will be out on June 28.
How terrifying, you know something is wrong but you cannot speak! That is what happens to May in The Stranger She Knew by Rosalind Stopps. It was very uncomfortable to read about someone’s fears and they cannot communicate by just talking about them. This book was what I call a slow burn, it reveals everything slowly and doesn’t have the rapid twists and turns that thrillers typically have.
If you don’t mind a book that unfolds in all due time and contains past/present chapters then you should give this one a whirl.
SYNOPSIS
As a young woman, May found that sometimes it was easier to say nothing and cope with what life threw at her in silence. Now, decades later, May has suffered a stroke and has lost her ability to speak. She is still as sharp as ever, but only her daughter and a new friend from the care home, see this.
When May discovers that someone very familiar, from long ago, is living in the room opposite hers she is haunted by scenes from her earlier life. May is determined to protect everyone from this new threat, but how can she warn them without her voice? And who really is this man charming everyone in May’s life?
This one will be out on June 7!
If you are into nasty characters that do terrible things then Look Closer by David Ellis is for you! I personally don’t mind unlikeable characters, in fact, I tend to enjoy those “love to hate” people when it comes to thrillers and suspense.
This is a tense read that will keep you glued to every chapter!
SYNOPSIS
Simon and Vicky couldn’t seem more normal: a wealthy Chicago couple, he a respected law professor, she an advocate for domestic violence victims. A stable, if unexciting marriage. But one thing’s for sure … absolutely nothing is what it seems. The pair are far from normal, and one of them just may be a killer.
When the body of a beautiful socialite is found hanging in a mansion in a nearby suburb, Simon and Vicky’s secrets begin to unravel. A secret whirlwind affair. A twenty-million-dollar trust fund about to come due. A decades-long grudge and obsession with revenge. These are just a few of the lies that make up the complex web…and they will have devastating consequences. And while both Vicky and Simon are liars, just who exactly is conning who?
If you cannot get enough of mysteries, thrillers, and suspense books then you will have to get this when it comes out on July 5.
Lucinda Riley was a favorite author of mine who sadly passed away. I think this is her last novel which was published with the help of her son. I will miss her writing but was glad to get the chance to read The Murders at Fleat House. I love her writing style and am never disappointed in any of her stories.
SYNOPSIS:
The sudden death of a pupil in Fleat House at St Stephen’s – a small private boarding school in deepest Norfolk – is a shocking event that the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic accident.
But the local police cannot rule out foul play and the case prompts the return of high-flying Detective Inspector Jazmine ‘Jazz’ Hunter to the force. Jazz has her own private reasons for stepping away from her police career in London, but reluctantly agrees to front the investigation as a favour to her old boss.
Reunited with her loyal sergeant Alastair Miles, she enters the closed world of the school, and as Jazz begins to probe the circumstances surrounding Charlie Cavendish’s tragic death, events are soon to take another troubling turn.
Charlie is exposed as an arrogant bully, and those around him had both motive and opportunity to switch the drugs he took daily to control his epilepsy.
As staff at the school close ranks, the disappearance of young pupil Rory Millar and the death of an elderly Classics master provide Jazz with important leads, but are destined to complicate the investigation further. As snow covers the landscape and another suspect goes missing, Jazz must also confront her personal demons . . .
Then, a particularly grim discovery at the school makes this the most challenging murder investigation of her career. Because Fleat House hides secrets darker than even Jazz could ever have imagined . . .
This is out now, don’t miss it! A very good book by a beloved author who will be missed.
Sue Watson is another author whose books I always enjoy. All of her stories keep me engrossed, turning the pages quickly, eager to see what happens next. And that is what a good suspense novel should do, keep you curious! The Resort was a solid read with a cast of characters who all have a reason to dislike the young waitress at the resort, but who would resort (ha!) to murder?
SYNOPSIS
When a dream trip becomes your worst nightmare…
You’ve been excited about this getaway for months – at last, a chance to reconnect with your husband at a secluded island resort. But when he unexpectedly calls you from the beach, you hear the urgency in his voice. Something is very wrong.
The beautiful waitress from the restaurant last night has been found lying dead in the sand. And the police want to question your husband about it.
Sure, you saw him glance at her over dinner a few times, but you know he didn’t have anything to do with the poor girl’s death. So why is he asking you to lie to the police that he was with you all night? And where did he go in those missing hours?
When he returns to your beautiful sea-view suite, things get heated and he accuses you of being jealous, just like he always does. Yes, the waitress was overly flirtatious with your husband, but you didn’t actually wish her any harm. Not really.
Can you trust the man you married… or are you the one who can’t be trusted?
Sue’s books are always great! I’m already looking forward to whatever she writes next. The Resort comes out on June 24.
The Murder List by Jackie Kabler is a fun and clever story about a young woman who receives the worst gift ever, a journal with a list of people to be murdered. NO THANKS, return to sender! Unfortunately for Mary, this is something she can’t turn away from and she must take action.
SYNOPSIS:
When Mary receives a blank diary as a present, she thinks nothing of it. Until she opens the diary, and sees it’s not blank after all…
1st January MURDER LISA, OXFORD
1st February MURDER JANE, BIRMINGHAM
1st March MURDER DAVID, CARDIFF
1st April MURDER MARY, CHELTENHAMIs this some kind of sick joke? But…it’s the end of January now. And a woman named Lisa was murdered in Oxford on 1st January.
Does that mean there really is a killer out there, planning to commit a new murder on the first of each month? And is the Mary due to be killed on 1st April her?
The clock is ticking for Mary to uncover the truth, before she becomes the next victim on the killer’s list…
What a great read! Out on May 31!
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill caught my attention right away, I love the setting of a library, having spent much of my time in various libraries during my life so far. And I do love a “closed room” mystery so I was super excited to read this novel. It’s a little more dense and slow than other suspense books I’ve read lately, but I enjoyed reading it.
SYNOPSIS:
In every person’s story, there is something to hide…
The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who’d happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.
The author did a great job with rounding out the characters and maintaining an element of suspense.
Coming out on June 7.
It was the cover of The Birdcage by Eve Chase that caught my eye. Just look at how beautiful and intricate! While I was drawn to the cover, it was the story that really caught my attention!
Some secrets need to be set free…
Kat, Flossie and Lauren are half-sisters who share a famous artist father – and a terrible secret.
Each has found their way of burying it. Over the years they’ve grown apart, and into wildly different lives. But an invitation to Rock Point, the Cornish cliff house where they once sat for their father’s most celebrated painting, Girls with Birdcage, reunites them.
Rock Point is a beautiful, windswept place, thick with secrets, electrically charged with the one subject the family don’t discuss. And there is someone in the shadows watching the house, their every move. Someone who remembers the girls in the painting. What they did.
The sisters must unlock the truth to set themselves free – and find each other again.
This was a good, solid read that I enjoyed with a dual timeline that kept me interested! Out now!
There is nothing like a good memoir and I especially enjoyed Daffodil Hill by Jake Keiser. I often wonder what it would be like to completely start over, a new life that vastly different from what I live now, something that takes me out of my comfort zone like living in the country in an old farmhouse on a large piece of land with animals everywhere.
And Jake did just that! What a gutsy move.
SYNOPSIS
Jake Keiser was living the life in Tampa, Florida, running a high-powered PR firm and juggling drink dates, shopping sprees, and charity galas. But at age thirty-eight, following a failed marriage, a series of miscarriages, and a still-blistering breakup, she began to suffer from extreme anxiety. Hit with the realization that no amount of Botox could fill the hole in her heart, she decided to make the impulse purchase of a lifetime and bought a farm in the middle of nowhere, Mississippi.
Suddenly responsible for more than seventy-five animals and five acres of land, and with only one bar of cell service, Jake begins her search for inner peace. She learns to fix a well, haul wood, shoot a gun, and care for baby chicks, goats, turkeys, geese, dogs, and a cat, playing spa music for them when they’re sick and naming them after her favorite fashion designers. The only problem is that she still can’t figure out how to truly care for herself. Unable to escape the accumulated pain of her past, Jake hits rock bottom. With nowhere left to run, she’s finally forced to confront a bracing reality: The farm won’t save her. Only she can save herself.
Don’t miss this book, it was fantastic! Coming out on June 7.
Books I have read and loved recently:
