I enjoyed every page of Every Last Secret by A.R. Torre!
Welcome to the neighborhood. Watch your husband, watch your friends, and watch your back.
Cat Winthorpe has worked hard to get what she has: a gorgeous home; social standing; and William, her successful, handsome husband. Then a friendly new couple moves into the estate next door. While cautious, a good neighbor like Cat greets them with open arms and warm hospitality.
Neena Ryder isn’t a fellow lady of leisure. A life coach with off-the-rack dresses, personal issues, and a husband who hasn’t delivered, she’s anxious to move up in the world. This beautiful new town is a step in the right direction. It’s also making Neena aware of what she doesn’t have. Namely, William. When Neena’s infatuation escalates into obsession, it’s just a matter of eliminating a few obstacles to get the life she wants. The life next door.
As Neena’s secret fixation grows, so does her friendship with Cat. But beneath their cordial interactions is a wealth of temptations, secrets, and toxic jealousy. For both women, the desire for a perfect life can turn perfectly dangerous.
This was a fun, twisty story of two women. They hate each other but pretend to be friends for the sake of their wealthy neighborhood and husbands. There’s Neena who is married to dumpy, boring Matt. And then Cat, married to Neena’s boss, William who is smart and gorgeous.
Neena is hell-bent on having an affair with William and she always gets what she wants! The chapters alternate between Neena and Cat’s point of view and they are both so deliciously evil. This is suspense but there’s humor too and it’s such a smooth read that kept my attention from beginning to end.
I cannot wait to read more from this author!
This one comes out on October 13, it will only be $3.99! That’s a great deal for such a fantastic book. Pre-order here!
I Know Your Secret by Ruth Heald was a fun book full of suspense. I was curious and engaged throughout and was kept guessing!
Beth is a marriage counselor whose serious boyfriend has just left her. She is trying to help a client of hers, Danielle, a clearly troubled woman with severe scarring on her face. Danielle is hoping to have a baby with her husband Peter but Beth thinks something more might be going on. And Beth is correct! Both Beth and Danielle have secrets and the reader doesn’t know who or what to believe.
Take a look:
You’re not who you say you are. Neither is she. She thinks she knows me. She believes my marriage is falling apart at the seams, that my husband can barely look me in the eyes. She thinks I’m desperate for a baby, that my longing for a family keeps me up at night. As much as I hate to admit it, all of this is true.
She thinks I listen to her advice, that I care about her opinion. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Because she has no idea who I am. She has no clue that I know everything.
I know her secret. I know that she did the unforgivable. I know how many lives she ruined. I know exactly what she did. And I’m here for her.
Such a wild ride, you will be glued to the pages! This will be published on June 10! This book is well worth $3.99 for your Kindle, pre-order right now.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley was just as amazing as I wanted it to be! I read some reviews and the readers who got early copies of this book raved about it so I went in a little nervous that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations… but I loved it. I gave it five big Goodreads stars.
Each character has an interesting story and chapters alternate between them. The descriptions and the writing is pitch-perfect here, I enjoyed how the author phrased things and described the scenery. This is a book where I felt that the plot, characters, pacing, and ending could not have been any better.
Synopsis:
Set on a remote island off the Irish coast, this is one guest list no one would want to be on, just as no one would have wanted an invitation to the New Year’s Eve party in Foley’s previous novel, The Hunting Party . Lives unravel amid the revelry on an eerie and remote island as family and friends assemble for a glam wedding in an updated Murder on the Orient Express. Each of the principal characters has a reason to want one of their number dead, there are old secrets, and one of them is murdered.
I can totally see this as a movie and I’m sure someone will grab the rights if they haven’t already.
The Guest List will be published on June 2, this is an absolute must-read! Pre-order here.
I was SO SO HAPPY to get a sneak peek of the new Lisa Jewell novel, Invisible Girl. I didn’t need to know anything about the plot, I saw Lisa’s name and I knew I was going to be in for a treat. And I was right.
From the opening pages, you are swept into the world of Saffyre, Owen, and Cate. This is a slowly unfolding drama that keeps you guessing throughout the story. I felt compassion for each character, especially Owen but it was easy to understand both Cate’s and Saffyre’s points of views.
I’ve never seen a book with a plot like this and I always love a fresh story that brings a new experience to the reader.
Take a look:
Owen Pick’s life is falling apart. In his thirties, a virgin, and living in his aunt’s spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a geography teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct, which he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel—involuntary celibate—forums, where he meets the charismatic, mysterious, and sinister Bryn.
Across the street from Owen lives the Fours family, headed by mom Cate, a physiotherapist, and dad Roan, a child psychologist. But the Fours family have a bad feeling about their neighbor Owen. He’s a bit creepy and their teenaged daughter swears he followed her home from the train station one night.
Meanwhile, young Saffyre Maddox spent three years as a patient of Roan Fours. Feeling abandoned when their therapy ends, she searches for other ways to maintain her connection with him, following him in the shadows and learning more than she wanted to know about Roan and his family. Then, on Valentine’s night, Saffyre Maddox disappears—and the last person to see her alive is Owen Pick.
You can never go wrong with a book by Lisa Jewell! Don’t miss this novel, it’s so good!
This will be published on October 13th, don’t miss it! Pre-order here.
I have enjoyed every novel I’ve read by Samantha Hayes and this was no exception. The Happy Couple was intriguing from the beginning when Jo looks for a place to stay, like an Airbnb, and sees photos of her missing husband in a house. Naturally, she books a stay, curious as to why her husband’s photo is in someone else’s home.
He’s been missing for a year, has he been living there? Or does the person who owns the home know something about him? WHAT IS HAPPENING? Why did he leave? Jo has been living in a nightmare wondering about her husband, WHERE IS HE?
Right away, I trusted none of the characters from Jo herself to her best friend Louise. Jo keeps thinking she sees Will but its just her imagination until it isn’t. Is it? This is twisty and dizzying and a fast read.
Synopsis:
Me and Will. Will and Me. A perfect match. He said he would always be there for me, but it’s been a year since he drained his coffee, walked out the front door and vanished.
Did he leave me? Or did something terrible happen? I’m scared someone finally found out about what happened on the drive home that night…
I lie awake at night trawling the internet for rental properties, desperate for an escape. Until I see my husband’s gorgeous face smiling back at me from a photograph on the fireplace in someone else’s home, and something inside of me snaps.
At the house, I find no trace of him and the woman who lives there has no idea who I am. But I’m certain she’s hiding something behind the locked door upstairs. I know that if I want answers, I have to stay. You might think that what’s inside that room is the answer to all my questions and the end of all my pain. But it’s only the beginning…
Definitely an entertaining page-turner! Only $3.99 for Kindle, get it here!
One of Todays‘s Ten Best Inspirational Books, 2020 | One of Huff Post’s 10 Most Anticipated Book Releases Of May 2020
If you suffer from depression, you know there is nothing hilarious about it.
I’m glad that John Moe explores what it feels like to deal with this illness that to me, feels like wearing a heavy coat all day, every day. You just can’t shrug it off or snap out of it despite what well-meaning friends and family have advised.
I have been slowly reading The Hilarious World of Depression, which is part memoir, part stories from people who know what it’s like to deal with this feeling of profound sadness. The book is both funny and wise, people who suffer from depression will want to snuggle up on the couch and read this book
Here’s the premise:
For years John Moe, critically-acclaimed public radio personality and host of The Hilarious World of Depression podcast, struggled with depression; it plagued his family and claimed the life of his brother in 2007. As Moe came to terms with his own illness, he began to see similar patterns of behavior and coping mechanisms surfacing in conversations with others, including high-profile comedians who’d struggled with the disease. Moe saw that there was tremendous comfort and community in open dialogue about these shared experiences and that humor had a unique power. Thus was born the podcast The Hilarious World of Depression.
Inspired by the immediate success of the podcast, Moe has written a remarkable investigation of the disease, part memoir of his own journey, part treasure trove of laugh-out-loud stories and insights drawn from years of interviews with some of the most brilliant minds facing similar challenges. Throughout the course of this powerful narrative, depression’s universal themes come to light, among them, struggles with identity, lack of understanding of the symptoms, the challenges of work-life, self-medicating, the fallout of the disease in the lives of our loved ones, the tragedy of suicide, and the hereditary aspects of the disease.
I really cannot recommend this book enough! Out now… Get it on your kindle here.
The Invitation by Rachel Abbott is a brilliant and gripping and twisty novel! A gathering of friends who can’t be trusted is right up my alley so this was a treat to read. When there is something introduced called The Murder Game, I am going to want to read about it.
Take a look at the plot:
The first time Jemma and Matt were invited to Polskirrin – the imposing ocean-view home belonging to Matt’s childhood friend Lucas Jarrett – it was for an intimate wedding that ended in tragedy. Jemma will never forget the sight of the girl’s pale body floating listlessly towards the rocky shore.
Now, exactly one year later, Jemma and her husband have reluctantly returned at Lucas’s request to honor the anniversary of an event they would do anything to forget.
But what Lucas has in store for his guests is nothing like a candlelight vigil. Someone who was there that night remembers more than they’ll admit to, and Lucas has devised a little game to make them tell the truth.
Jemma believes she and Matt know nothing about what happened to that woman… but what if she’s wrong? Before you play a deadly game, make sure you can pay the price…
Though this is second in a series, I read it as a standalone and enjoyed it immensely. I think either way you go in, you will enjoy this novel!
Out now! Get it here, it’s free if you have Kindle Unlimited and $3.99 if you don’t!
I always love a memoir especially one with a sense of humor that takes place in a small town! If you are an outcast, a weirdo, didn’t fit in, struggled to find your place, if you have a sense of humor and can write about your experiences, then I will want to read your book.
Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran takes a look at his personal experiences growing up as the only Vietnamese kid in town, his strict parents, and his love for reading. His life was not easy and its not difficult to have compassion for his experiences.
In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Phuc Tran immigrates to America along with his family. By sheer chance, they land in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a small town where the Trans struggle to assimilate into their new life. In this coming-of-age memoir told through the themes of great books such as The Metamorphosis, The Scarlet Letter, The Iliad, and more, Tran navigates the push and pull of finding and accepting himself despite the challenges of immigration, feelings of isolation, and teenage rebellion, all while attempting to meet the rigid expectations set by his immigrant parents.
Appealing to fans of coming-of-age memoirs such as Fresh Off the Boat, Running with Scissors, or tales of assimilation like Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Displaced and The Refugees, Sigh, Gone explores one man’s bewildering experiences of abuse, racism, and tragedy and reveals redemption and connection in books and punk rock. Against the hairspray-and-synthesizer backdrop of the ‘80s, he finds solace and kinship in the wisdom of classic literature, and in the subculture of punk rock, he finds affirmation and echoes of his disaffection. In his journey for self-discovery Tran ultimately finds refuge and inspiration in the art that shapes—and ultimately saves—him.
This is a witty and honest look at Phuc’s experiences which I enjoyed reading although there were times I cringed and got sad and felt bad. And then there were times I laughed.
You can get this book now, go here for the Kindle edition.
I was so excited to read the Reese Witherspoon book club pick, The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi. It sounded amazing and I downloaded my Kindle copy and started reading as soon as Reese announced the May book.
This was such a beautifully written and richly detailed story. I loved reading about the herbs the character used to heal, the henna she painted on the wealthy women in town. Lakshmi was a well developed and sympathetic character with growth during the book as she tries to save money for her dream house, raise her little sister, and tend to the women in town with their various ailments.
I will be looking forward to what the author writes next!
Trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own…
Escaping from an arranged and abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone from her 1950s rural village to the vibrant pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the henna artist—and confidante—most in demand to the wealthy women of the upper class.
Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow—a younger sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those who surround her as she does.
Beautifully written book! Don’t miss this one. Get it right now by going here.
Safe by S.K. Barnett was a quick read for me because I wanted to know what was going to happen and I tore through the pages!
Jenny was taken from her street, practically in front of her house twelve years ago. When she returns, everyone is happy to see her except her older brother who questions the identity of this girl who may or may not be his sister. Jenny’s mother wants to believe this is really Jenny.
Why is she back, where was she? Who took her? What happened?
Things did NOT play out as I anticipated which is always a good thing when you are reading a thriller. In fact, I didn’t see the twists coming.
Synopsis:
Jenny Kristal was six years old when she was snatched off the sidewalk from her quiet suburban neighborhood. Twelve years later, she’s miraculously returned home after escaping her kidnappers—but as her parents and older brother welcome her back, the questions begin to mount. Where has she been all these years? Why is she back now? And is home really the safest place for her…or for any of them?
I know that fans of suspense are going to devour this novel!
This one comes out on June 9, you can pre-order it here.
I loved reading Three Little Truths by Eithne Shortall which is about a close-knit neighborhood complete with its own WhatsApp group where everyone can keep up with what is going on. Meaning everyone knows everyone else business and if they don’t know, they are sure to find out. Yes they look out for each other but they also look at what everyone is doing.
The women have their secrets, drama, and of course, there is plenty of gossip to keep things interesting. This book focuses on three women who live on Pine Road: Martha, Robin, and Edie They are all likable characters. Bernie is the leader of the neighborhood, she is rather unlikable with a strong personality and demanding nature that I would not get along with if this were real life!
Here’s the synopsis:
Martha used to be a force of nature: calm, collected, and in charge. But since moving her husband and two daughters to Dublin under sudden and mysterious circumstances, she can’t seem to find her footing.
Robin was the “it” girl in school, destined for success. Now she’s back at her parents’ with her four-year-old son, vowing that her ne’er-do-well ex is out of the picture for good.
Edie has everything she could want, apart from a baby, and the acceptance of her new neighbors. She longs to be one of the girls, and to figure out why her perfect husband seems to be avoiding their perfect future. Three women looking for a fresh start on idyllic Pine Road. Their friendship will change their lives and reveal secrets they never imagined.
If you enjoy books by Liane Moriarty or Marian Keyes, you will love Three Little Truths!
You can order the paperback here.
