What To  Read In March & April! Exciting  Books To Read THIS SPRING

We are all in for such a treat as more and more amazing books keep coming out! There are so many four and five-star novels to read and I’m really excited to share these with you. Not a day goes by when I don’t read for at least two hours, usually in the evening.

You can find me on Instagram at CindysAlwaysReading where I post about books every day!

 

 

Strangers byC.L. Taylor is about three people- Ursula, Gareth, Alice- whose individual stories collide and you will be swept up in this, trust me. I loved the idea of this book and thought it was brilliantly written with enough suspense to keep the reader turning pages quickly!

Take a look:

Ursula, Gareth and Alice have never met before.  Ursula thinks she killed the love of her life.  Gareth’s been receiving strange postcards.  And Alice is being stalked.
None of them are used to relying on others – but when the three strangers’ lives unexpectedly collide, there’s only one thing for it: they have to stick together. Otherwise, one of them will die.

Three strangers, two secrets, one terrifying evening.  The million-copy bestseller returns with a gripping new novel that will keep you guessing until the end.

This is a twisty story that will take you on quite a ride. It’s the perfect novel to read on a rainy day, you could easily sit on the couch and read this in a single afternoon. C.L. Taylor is an author who is now on my “must-read everything” list. I’m so impressed and look forward to more!

Go here to order and download it on your Kindle!

 

The Girl You Gave Away by Jess Ryder was really good, a definite must-read for anyone who enjoys a suspenseful domestic thriller.  I’ve read a few books now by this author and have liked them all, so you can’t go wrong with choosing any of her novels.

Secrets, kidnapping, and revenge figure into this story which is the perfect cocktail for dark suspense.

Here’s the plot:

All she wanted was the life they had…It is the day of Erin’s fortieth birthday party. Pink and silver balloons drift through her garden, the platters of food are empty and the recycling is overflowing with empty wine bottles.  As Erin mingles with groups of family and friends, surrounded by love and laughter, she feels like the luckiest woman alive. She has no idea what fate has in store …

Then a little red envelope lands on the doormat and everything changes. Inside is a birthday card from somebody she never dreamed would get in touch. Its message is a chilling reminder of the dark past that Erin has worked so hard to bury, a past that could put her precious family in terrible danger…

I also liked The Ex-Wife and The Dream House by Jess Ryder. Highly recommend both of them!

Only $3.99 on Kindle! Coming out on March 20th!

 

Where The Lost Wander by Amy Harmon is a wonderful historical fiction story. You can really lose yourself in the pages of this book, being swept away into another time and place.  There is just something so magical about books like this one. Maybe its that there is no television or phones or social media, is pure survival and wits that keeps people going. It makes me think about how I couldn’t survive back then. No electricity or toilets? I couldn’t! But I like to read about it.

Check it out:

The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both.

But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart. John’s heritage gains them safe passage through hostile territory only to come between them as they seek to build a life together.

When a horrific tragedy strikes, decimating Naomi’s family and separating her from John, the promises they made are all they have left. Ripped apart, they can’t turn back, they can’t go on, and they can’t let go. Both will have to make terrible sacrifices to find each other, save each other, and eventually…make peace with who they are.

Coming out on April 28, pre-order now and have it magically delivered to your Kindle!

 

 

Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman is a funny book about a woman who is fifty, she is in the midst of a personal crisis involving her husband and teenaged son. Add to that her parents have passed away. The themes of mental health, marriage, and middle age are explored and I think so many people can relate.

With her life not really going how she wants, she decides to wear her dog Charlotte in an old baby sling for comfort. This reminded me of an emotional support peacock someone tried to travel with, but I digress.

Judy uses Charlotte as a coping strategy which is understandable since life is spinning out of her control and dogs offer so much love. Our main character has low self-esteem and I can relate to her feelings, I think many women will see parts of themselves in Judy.

Synopsis:

Judy never intended to start wearing the dog. But when she stumbled across her son Teddy’s old baby sling during a halfhearted basement cleaning, something in her snapped. So: the dog went into the sling, Judy felt connected to another living being, and she’s repeated the process every day since.

Life hasn’t gone according to Judy’s plan. Her career as a children’s book author offered a glimpse of success before taking an embarrassing nose dive. Teddy, now a teenager, treats her with some combination of mortification and indifference. Her best friend is dying. And her husband, Gary, has become a pot-addled professional “snackologist” who she can’t afford to divorce. On top of it all, she has a painfully ironic job writing articles for a self-help website—a poor fit for someone seemingly incapable of helping herself.

Wickedly funny and surprisingly tender, Separation Anxiety offers a frank portrait of middle-aged limbo, examining the ebb and flow of life’s most important relationships. Tapping into the insecurities and anxieties that most of us keep under wraps, and with a voice that is at once gleefully irreverent and genuinely touching, Laura Zigman has crafted a new classic for anyone taking fumbling steps toward happiness.

Middle age….no fun! Thankfully there are books like this one to help us move through tough times and laugh a little.

Who doesn’t want to read a humorous book? So funny! Get it now.

 

 

 

Everyone I know who has read The Twin by Natasha Preston loves it! This is a YA book but any age can enjoy it. I don’t read a ton of Young Adult fiction but once in a while a book will jump out at me and I will read it. That was the case with this book, I cannot resist a creepy, dark story about a child who may or may not be evil.

The Twin is dark and haunting and I think those who enjoyed Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage or The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry will like it.

What you need to know:

After their parents divorced, 10-year-old twins Ivy and Iris were split up–Ivy lived with Dad, Iris with Mom. Now, after a tragic accident takes their mom’s life, the twins are reunited and Iris moves in with Ivy and their dad. Devastated over Mom’s death, Iris spends the first few weeks in almost total silence–the only person she will speak to is Ivy. Iris feels her life is over and she doesn’t know what to do. Ivy promises her twin that she can share her life now. After all, they’re sisters. Twins.

It’s a promise that Iris takes seriously. And before long, Ivy’s friends, her life at school, and her boyfriend, Tyler, fall under Iris’s spell. Slowly, Ivy realizes she’s being pushed out of her own life. But she’s just being paranoid, right? And Mom’s accident was . . . just an accident. Right? It’s not like she–or Dad–or Tyler–are in any danger. . . .

You will be turning the pages quickly in this slow burn of a haunting and chilling story.

Available here and now! Perfect reading for a rainy day.

 

 

Hope Close by Tina Seskis features three women who live in a lovely neighborhood called Hope Close. The peaceful neighborhood changes with the arrival of a mysterious man named Andy who puts up a big gate, why? What is he hiding?  Naturally, the women are curious and want to know what’s going on. But each of them has something they are hiding too…

Synopsis:

Hope Close: a leafy, tranquil backwater in the heart of the English countryside. But when Andy Meyer moves in, it soon becomes clear that picture-perfect homes can hide less-than-perfect lives. Fresh from rehab and with no interest in meeting his neighbours, Andy erects forbidding gates to keep the ghosts of his past—and any prying eyes—at bay.

Next door, in the grandest house, Layla is unhappily married to a much older man and desperately misses her young son, who has been banished to boarding school. When lonely Nicole from over the road confides her own secret heartache to Layla, the two women form an unlikely bond—until one of them attracts the attention of their mysterious new neighbour.

The only person to sense something dangerous about Andy is busybody Joan. But will her suspicions bring her more than she bargains for?

As the past catches up with the residents of Hope Close, it becomes clear that the intriguing new neighbour isn’t the only one with something to hide…

I love books like this where everyone has a secret. The plot was intriguing and I liked the characters. I love it when a book keeps me guessing and I’m not sure how things will play out.

Free if you have Kindle Unlimited, out on March 24! 

 

 

The Garden of Lost Memories by Ruby Hummingbird grabbed my attention right away, I love the bright cover! Then I read the synopsis and knew I had to read this story.

Take a look:

Just because you feel ordinary doesn’t mean you aren’t extraordinary to someone else.  Sixty-two-year-old Elsie knows what she likes. Custard creams at four o’clock, jigsaw puzzles with a thousand pieces, her ivy-covered, lavender-scented garden.

Ten-year-old Billy would rather spend his Saturdays kicking a ball, or watching TV, or anything really, other than being babysat by his grumpy neighbour Elsie and being force fed custard creams.  If it was up to them, they’d have nothing to do with each other. Unfortunately, you can’t choose who you live next door to.

But there is always more to people than meets the eye… Elsie doesn’t know that Billy’s afraid to go to school now, or why his mother woke him up in the middle of the night with an urgent shake, bags already packed, ready to flee their home.

Billy doesn’t know that the rusting red tin he finds buried in Elsie’s treasured garden is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode her carefully organised life. And that when he digs it up, he is unearthing a secret that has lain dormant for twenty-eight years…

This is a  beautifully written, lovely story that is perfect for those who books like A Man Called Ove or Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. I  enjoy books like this one because I love getting invested in a character who is prickly or misunderstood but has some kind of deep wound we learn about through the pages. I’m already looking forward to the next book from this author!

99 cents! Out on April 1, order here.

 

Feels Like Falling by Kristy Woodson Harvey is already being talked about! Just look at this:

Parade’s 20 Most Anticipated Books of Early 2020
SheKnows’ 10 of the Most Anticipated Books Coming in 2020
Mary Kay Andrews’ Reading Challenge Women’s Fiction Pick
Working Mother’s 20 Most Anticipated Books of 2020 for Working Moms

This is going to definitely be a Must-Read Spring book! It has all the ingredients for a fantastic story including troubled and sympathetic characters, a lovely setting, secrets, friendship.

The synopsis:

It’s summertime on the North Carolina coast and the livin’ is easy. Unless, that is, you’ve just lost your mother to cancer, your sister to her extremist husband, and your husband to his executive assistant. Meet Gray Howard. Right when Gray could use a serious infusion of good karma in her life, she inadvertently gets a stranger, Diana Harrington, fired from her job at the local pharmacy.

Diana Harrington’s summer isn’t off to the greatest start either: Hours before losing her job, she broke up with her boyfriend and moved out of their shared house with only a worn-out Impala for a bed. Lucky for her, Gray has an empty guest house and a very guilty conscience.

With Gray’s kindness, Diana’s tide begins to turn. But when her first love returns, every secret from her past seems to resurface all at once. And, as Gray begins to blaze a new trail, she discovers, with Diana’s help, that what she envisioned as her perfect life may not be what she wants at all.

I love books that center on friendship and overcoming the bumps in the road of life we all face from time to time. This was so well written and page-turning though not a mystery or thriller. Feels Like Falling is my first book by Kristy Woodson Harvey but not my last!

Coming out on April 28, pre-order here. 

 

 

 

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore was an atmospheric novel that sweeps you up right away. I can’t believe this was a debut, the author’s writing is excellent and I thought the story was compelling. I love a book that takes place in the 70s.

SO good! Look here:

It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow.

In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field—an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, the stage is set for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences.

Such a great novel! The storyline, the characters, everything about it was complex and riveting and reminded me a little of Jane Harper’s books.  If you don’t believe me, check out all the four and five-star reviews. Valentine would make an excellent series on Netflix, Hulu etc.

This comes out on March 31, pre-order here.

 

I have After The Accident by Kerry Wilkinson on my To-Be-Read list right now but since it’s published next week, I wanted to be sure to include it in my feature today! Don’t miss this one. What grabbed my attention was the setting of a vacation, the mystery surrounding a murder and the way the story is structured, told through interviews. Not only do  I love a thriller/mystery/suspense but if an author can present a story through transcripts, interviews etc, something unique, I will absolutely want to read it and I think you will too!

Take a look:

Under a cloudless Mediterranean sky, two families wheel their suitcases past swaying palm trees towards their hotel to grab a spot by the pool. But behind the smiles, someone is hiding a terrible secret… I never wanted to come on this trip. I thought the accident had torn us apart forever, but then my mother called out of the blue, wanting to make amends. So here we are, two families on a beautiful island, sipping sangria like nothing ever happened.

My parents’ oldest friend, Daniel, was invited too – I’ve never trusted him, and now he brings up my past mistake every chance he gets. And why does his son, Victor, keep disappearing off on his own?  Even my brother’s here, with his twins. It’s amazing to see my nieces playing happily in the pool. After what happened at home, it still hurts me to be around the girls, but more so that my brother doesn’t trust me alone with them.

Despite everything, it’s going surprisingly well – everyone forcing a smile at the dinner table, laughing at the twins’ antics – until the night my father is attacked on the beach, left for dead on the sand.  As always, all fingers point to me, but this time I know for certain that I’m innocent. And if I’m not guilty, someone else on this holiday is…

An FYI, After The Accident was formally titled Seven Days In July.  This twisty novel will be out on March 31! Pre-order now.

 

 

Some Days Are Dark by Miranda Smith gets two thumbs up from me! Wow, such a talented author to keep my eye on! I can’t wait to see what Miranda writes next.

Check out this plot:

I was happy my husband died, but I couldn’t admit it, otherwise, people might think I killed him.

Before

Olivia knows she is lucky. She has a loving husband, Frank, an adorable son, Jake, and a beautiful new home. It couldn’t be more different from her childhood on the outskirts of Whitaker, dirt poor and dreaming of getting out. But at the end of long days with no one to talk to, always feeling like she’s not quite good enough, she starts to wonder if there’s a better life waiting…

After

Everyone in Whitaker knows who Olivia is. She’s the woman who left her family for no-good Dane Miller—and the one who most likely shot him. Now, there’s gossip about her everywhere she goes, she’s too scared to leave the house most days, and she barely gets to see her beloved son.

How can a perfect life fall apart so quickly? And, when you have nothing to lose, how far will you go to save yourself?

With realistic and not so likable characters, this book really kept me hooked and intrigued. From the early pages you are swept up in Olivia’s story, why is she happy her husband is dead? Red flag! It sounds like maybe he wasn’t the nicest guy and no one is really going to miss him. But who did it? Maybe Olivia herself. Fast-paced and compelling, its a book you will want to read in a single sitting! Just clear your calendar and relax on the couch for a while.

Available now! Only 99 cents on Kindle here.

 

 

I was super excited to read Strike Me Down by Mindy Mejia because of the plot, just take a look at how intriguing it is:

Nora Trier catches thieves. As a forensic accountant and partner in her downtown Minneapolis firm, she’s unearthed millions in every corner of the world. She prides herself on her independence, the most essential currency of accounting, until her firm is hired by Strike.

An anti-corporate, feminist athletic empire, Strike is owned by Logan Russo, a brash and legendary kickboxer, and her marketing genius husband, Gregg Abbott. They’re about to host a major kickboxing tournament with twenty million dollars in prize money, and the chance for the champion to become the new face of the company. Gregg suspects his wife already has a new face in mind—a young trainer named Aaden, for whom Logan feels an unexpected connection.

Days before the tournament begins, it’s discovered that the prize money is missing. Gregg hires Nora’s firm to find both the thief and the money but Nora has a secret connection to Strike that threatens her independence. Her partner pressures her into taking the case anyway, hinting he has information about Strike that could change the course of the investigation in a shocking and deadly way.

We have a strong, smart main character here in  Nora Trier. I’m not sure if I have ever read a book where the protagonist is a forensics accountant, thrillers focused on financial crimes isn’t what I usually gravitate towards but I knew the author was talented and had a feeling I’d like it.

This is a solid suspense that kept me guessing. What happened to the $20 million?

I really had no idea how it would all play out and unlike other books, I actually couldn’t figure out how everything would come together. I liked the character of Nora, she’s different and strong and so smart.

Out on April 7, pre-order here!