Amazing Sneak Peek! Here Are 13 Books You Need To Read This Summer

 

Those who enjoyed previous books by B.A. Paris will absolutely love her new novel, The Dilemma. The story centers around Livia, a woman excited to have a huge celebration for her 40th birthday. In fact, it’s all she’s dreamed of for the last several years and now the dream is coming true. All of her beloved friends and family will attend the party with the exception of her daughter Marnie, who is away at school.

Livia is keeping a secret about Marnie, at some point, she is going to have to tell her husband Adam, but not on this special day.

Here comes a twist in the plot…Adam is keeping a secret from Livia too. Only his secret is horrifying, something so major that he cannot push it to the back of his mind. But he has to in order for his wife to enjoy her day. And then he will tell her. Or should he tell her sooner?

What a DILEMMA!

Look:

It’s Livia’s fortieth birthday and tonight she’s having a party, a party she’s been planning for a long time. The only person missing will be her daughter, Marnie.

But Livia has a secret, a secret she’s been keeping from Adam, her husband, until the party is over. Because how can she tell him that although she loves Marnie, she’s glad their daughter won’t be there to celebrate with her?

Adam is determined everything will be just right for Livia and the party is going to be perfect… until he learns something that will leave him facing an unbearable decision.

I was glued to the pages and was impressed that the author could sustain the tension from beginning to end. My heart ached for Adam and then for Livia too and I was hoping for a different ending but I guess authors don’t always give the readers what they want right?

This book comes out on June 30, you can order it here and mark it To Be Read on Goodreads!

 

 

I was immediately drawn to The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman because I love books with groups of people who either have to survive something (like Force of Nature by Jane Harper) or have to survive each other (such as Shari Lapena’s novel, An Unwanted Guest).

This book exceeded my expectations! The author did a fantastic job with the plot and keeping the tension tight all the way through.

Take a look:

June Moody, a thirty-something English professor, just wants to get away from her recent breakup and reunite with girlfriends over summer break. Her old friend and longtime nemesis, Sadie MacTavish, a mega-successful author, invites June and her college friends to a baby shower at her sprawling estate in the San Juan Islands. June is less than thrilled to spend time with Sadie–and her husband, June’s former crush–but agrees to go.

The party gets off to a shaky start when old grudges resurface, but when they wake the next morning, they find something worse: Sadie is missing, the house is in shambles, and bloodstains mar the staircase. None of them has any memory of the night before; they wonder if they were drugged. Everyone’s a suspect. Since June had a secret rendezvous with Sadie’s husband, she has plenty of reason to suspect herself. Apparently, so do the cops.

A Celtic knot of suspense and surprise, this brooding, atmospheric novel will keep you guessing as each twist reveals a new possibility. It will remind you of friendships hidden in the depths of your own past, and make you wonder how well you really know the people you’ve loved the longest.

I was honestly wondering who did it and why? Everyone had a motive. Usually, I can figure things out pretty early on in books like this but I was reading quickly to find out what truly happened.  You might want to read this one in a single sitting as the mystery and intrigue keep you glued to the pages!

I cannot wait to see what Jody writes next!

You can pre-order the book here, will be delivered to your Kindle on June 9.

 

 

Riley Sager really knows how to scare a person. There were a few times reading Home Before Dark where I was downright frightened. Do you like sitting down with a book by an author that you enjoy or do you get nervous that the author might let you down and his or her book won’t live up to your expectations? Because I loved Lock Every Door, I was a little nervous that maybe Home Before Dark wasn’t going to pack the same literary punch but happily I can report, IT’S FANTASTIC.

In Lock Every Door, the apartment building was creepy, here its the childhood home of Maggie, a large rambling old house that holds scant memories for her. Her recently deceased father left her the house in his will, she thought he sold it long ago. Since Maggie renovates homes for a living, her goal is to come in and make some improvements then sell it.

The house is a sore spot for Maggie, she carries with her some anger over the fact her father capitalized on the house with his best selling book about their time living in the “House of Horrors” which made him both famous and rich. This is a book within a book as the chapters alternate between present-day Maggie and the House of Horrors book which details the bizarre activities that occurred when Maggie was a little girl.

Maggie feels that her father exaggerated much of what happened and is bitter about it. But when she moves into Baneberry Hall, she begins to wonder if her father wasn’t telling some truth about the house.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“What was it like? Living in that house.”

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

Needless to say, this is a captivating book and I enjoyed it tons, at least when I wasn’t scared. I remembered watching an episode of The Walton’s as a child and there was a poltergeist which freaked me out so much that I remember it to this day, over thirty years later. So yes, I do get easily spooked and yes, this book is creepy and chilling!

A must read! Pre-order it here and get it on June 30. 

 

 

Hurry Home by Roz Nay was a very good book, I enjoyed it from beginning and end and she is a wonderful writer.

I loved the premise of Hurry Home. I read so much and I often comment that I’m worn out from seeing the same recycled plot in suspense novels so something fresh is always welcome. Take a look here:

Alexandra Van Ness has a perfect life. She lives in an idyllic resort town tucked away in the Rocky Mountains, shares a designer loft with her handsome boyfriend, Chase, and has her dream job working in child protection. Every day, Alex goes above and beyond to save children at risk.

But when her long-lost sister, Ruth, unexpectedly shows up at her door, Alex’s perfect life is upended. Growing up, Ruth was always the troublemaker, pulling Alex into her messes, and this time will be no different. Still, Alex will help Ruth under one condition: we will never, ever, talk about the past. But when a local child goes missing, both women are forced to confront the secrets they’ve promised to keep buried.

“Close to my heart you’ll be, sisters forever you and me...”

I always like a book with family secrets, especially with sisters. In this case, with the return of Ruth, emotions come to the surface for Alexandra. I have to tell you that there were twists that I didn’t expect and I know that those who enjoy an engrossing mystery/suspense/thriller will love this story!

Pre-order Hurry Home now and then clear your schedule so you can read the whole book in one sitting! This comes out on July 7!

 

 

WOW. AMAZING. Couldn’t stop reading!

The Last Flight by Julie Clark put me in a trance until I finished the book and could go back to normal life.

Have you ever thought about disappearing and becoming someone else, someone new and different? After putting up with abuse from her husband, Claire has all the pieces in place to leave him and vanish without a trace. She has it all planned out and ready to execute and then…her husband changes everything and she is unable to go where she planned.

A chance meeting with a distraught young woman in the airport finds Claire swapping IDs with Eva, also running from something.  Claire steps into Eva’s life but not before she learns that the flight she was supposed to be on, the flight Eva took, has crashed and everyone on board died. Did Eva somehow escape?

The story is told from both Claire and Eva’s point of view. This book held me captive! I didn’t want to put it down and only did because…sleep. And then I picked it back up and finished it in one sitting.  I loved the idea, the characters, the way the author told the story. This will be a best seller and probably a movie.

Here is the official synopsis:

Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he’s not above using his staff to track Claire’s every move, making sure she’s living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn’t know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.

A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets ― Claire taking Eva’s flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it’s no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva’s identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

This book will be published on June 2, order here.

 

 

I read and loved Ellen Marie Wiseman’s books so I was very eager and excited to read The Orphan Collector. Like I have mentioned in the past, I don’t think of historical fiction as one of my favorites yet my most favorite books are typically that genre!

Ellen Marie Wiseman is a wonderful writer who is a wizard with her storytelling. I felt the same emotions as young Pia and I was frustrated and saddened many times by what she went through.

Take a look t the synopsis:

In the fall of 1918, thirteen-year-old German immigrant Pia Lange longs to be far from Philadelphia’s overcrowded streets and slums, and from the anti-German sentiment that compelled her father to enlist in the U.S. Army, hoping to prove his loyalty. But an even more urgent threat has arrived. Spanish influenza is spreading through the city. Soon, dead and dying are everywhere. With no food at home, Pia must venture out in search of supplies, leaving her infant twin brothers alone . Since her baby died days ago, Bernice Groves has been lost in grief and bitterness. If doctors hadn’t been so busy tending to hordes of immigrants, perhaps they could have saved her son.

When Bernice sees Pia leaving her tenement across the way, she is buoyed by a shocking, life-altering decision that leads her on a sinister mission: to transform the city’s orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are “true Americans.” As Pia navigates the city’s somber neighborhoods, she cannot know that her brothers won’t be home when she returns. And it will be a long and arduous journey to learn what happened—even as Bernice plots to keep the truth hidden at any cost. Only with persistence, and the courage to face her own shame and fear, will Pia put the pieces together and find the strength to risk everything to see justice at last.

The Spanish flu was incredibly scary and a real threat. Pia was just a young girl doing what she could to survive and take care of her little brothers, my heart broke for her! Bernice was a despicable character and reminded me of the real-life child trafficker, Georgia Tann who stole children from poor families and sold them.

If you enjoy historical fiction, this book is a MUST-READ! And so are this author’s other books.

Pre-order now, out on July 28.

 

 

I really liked Pretty Revenge by Emily Liebert and was super excited to read Perfectly Famous. Look at that eye-catching cover!

Take a look at the plot: 

As a mother and a famous author, Ward DeFleur has it all. She lives in a beautiful estate in picture-perfect Connecticut, along with her teenage daughter, Stevie, where nothing can go wrong. Until, one night, when Stevie is brutally murdered and Ward’s entire world is shattered. Consumed by panic and grief, Ward vows never to put pen to paper again.

Enter Bree Bennett.

Bree is a recently-divorced, former-journalist-cum-housewife, desperate to fill her days with something other than Pilates classes and grocery shopping. So she decides to start writing for the town newspaper. What begins as Bree’s effort to tell Ward’s tragic narrative turns into a fixation with finding her favorite author. Unfortunately, Ward doesn’t want to be found. Even worse, Stevie’s killer is still on the loose…

I really enjoyed this book and got into it right away from the first pages. She lays the groundwork for excellent suspense that twists and turns in many directions.

Emily’s writing is smooth and flowing and the reader is immediately swept up in the life of Bree and Ward DeFleur.  Bree is convinced that she needs to tell the story of Ward who suffered from the loss of her daughter and stopped writing. What really happened on the night that Stevie died? Who was responsible?  And is the killer still out there, watching and waiting?

This is a well-constructed story and written from different points of view. It kept me guessing as a good mystery/thriller should. I will absolutely be looking for whatever Emily writes next!

Due out on June 2! Order here.

 

 

Rebecca Fleet wrote the amazing novel, The House Swap which I really liked so I was eagerly awaiting her novel, The Second Wife and was so happy to get an early peek at it!

Imagine coming home to see your house in flames and your daughter trapped inside while your new wife is outside? Any parent would run into a flaming home to rescue their child! Alarm bells would ring right away for me if I were Alex. Thankfully Alex’s daughter Jade is rescued and she is ok. But when she talks about seeing a man in the house, Alex is right to be concerned. Is his new wife Natalie telling the truth about what happened? Who is the man? And of course, Alex is right to be concerned about his new wife.

This kicks off the story as we learn Natalie may not be the woman Alex thought she was.

Of course, there is more to the story and you don’t know who or what to believe. This is a book that will definitely keep you guessing. The story started getting really good towards the middle and then I had to keep reading until the very end.

Here is the premise:

When Alex met Natalie she changed his life. After the tragic death of his first wife, which left him a single parent to teenage daughter Jade, he’s determined to build a happy family.

But his new-found happiness is shattered when the family home is gutted by fire and his loyalties are unexpectedly tested. Jade insists she saw a man in the house on the night of the fire; Natalie denies any knowledge of such an intruder.

Alex is faced with an impossible choice: to believe his wife or his daughter? And as Natalie’s story unravels, Alex realizes that his wife has a past he had no idea about, a past that might yet catch up with her.

But this time, the past could be deadly . . .

I always love a book that keeps me wondering and though I didn’t find Natalie particularly likable, I did like the story. A must-read for those who love suspense and mystery!

Due out on August 18, order here.

 

 

 

Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle was one of my favorite books of 2019! I remember sitting on the couch reading it one afternoon and not getting up until I was done reading. So, of course, I was eager to read her follow-up, Stranger in the Lake.

Kimberly is a talented writer who knows how to keep a reader guessing and wondering what is going to happen next.  In this book, the main character Charlotte is married to Paul, a wealthy older man. His wife died in the lake behind his beautiful house and when Charlotte discovers a woman dead in the water much like his first wife, the alarm bells start sounding and its just too much of a coincidence. Is she in danger? And who is this woman?

When Charlotte married the wealthy widower Paul, it caused a ripple of gossip in their small lakeside town. They have a charmed life together, despite the cruel whispers about her humble past and his first marriage. But everything starts to unravel when she discovers a young woman’s body floating in the exact same spot where Paul’s first wife tragically drowned.

At first, it seems like a horrific coincidence, but the stranger in the lake is no stranger. Charlotte saw Paul talking to her the day before, even though Paul tells the police he’s never met the woman. His lie exposes cracks in their fragile new marriage, cracks Charlotte is determined to keep from breaking them in two.

As Charlotte uncovers dark mysteries about the man she married, she doesn’t know what to trust—her heart, which knows Paul to be a good man, or her growing suspicion that there’s something he’s hiding in the water.

The story alternates between present-day Charlotte and the murder mystery surrounding this woman, and twenty years ago, when Paul was close friends with Jax and Micah. Back then, an accident took place that they buried in the past but is it coming back to haunt them?

This book is a solid mystery and I liked it. I enjoyed the present-day parts more, I was wondering who  Charlotte could trust and I didn’t want to believe that Paul was a murderer. I had a lot of questions that were ultimately answered. I have to point out that the setting of this story was great, I felt so cold and damp and shivery with the backdrop of the woods and lake.

Coming out on June 9! Pre-order here.

 

The Wicked Sister by Karen Dionne is a MUST READ. This was my first book by Karen Dionna but not my last. What a masterful storyteller she is.

Take a look at the synopsis:

You have been cut off from society for fifteen years, shut away in a mental hospital in self-imposed exile as punishment for the terrible thing you did when you were a child. But what if nothing about your past is as it seems?

And if you didn’t accidentally shoot and kill your mother, then whoever did is still out there. Waiting for you.

For a decade and a half, Rachel Cunningham has chosen to lock herself away in a psychiatric facility, tortured by gaps in her memory and the certainty that she is responsible for her parents’ deaths. But when she learns new details about their murders, Rachel returns, in a quest for answers, to the place where she once felt safest: her family’s sprawling log cabin in the remote forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

As Rachel begins to uncover what really happened on the day her parents were murdered, she learns–as her mother did years earlier–that home can be a place of unspeakable evil, and that the bond she shares with her sister might be the most poisonous of all.

 

Rachel’s wildlife loving, scientist parents lived in a house deep in the woods, cut off from civilization. Rachel seemed to have a connection to the animals in the woods and could communicate with them. Her parents indulged her older sister Diana’s bizarre behavior including her love of taxidermy, in fact she had a whole set of knives and supplies. The book alternates between Jenny, the mother of Rachel and Diana, and Rachel’s point of view.

Rachel has lived her adult life believing that she killed her parents and is mentally ill even though the authorities determined she was not at fault.  She wants to go back to her childhood home and see what she can figure out for once and for all and put all the pieces together so she can move forward with her life.

Can she recover her memories and reconstruct the true events that led to the death of her parents? What really happened?

This is a story where the less you know, the better. Go into this not knowing much so you can let the book unfold but be warned that you might have to take a break from the intensity. I absolutely loved this book and cannot wait for everyone to read it.

The Wicked Sister will be out on August 4, pre-order here!

 

 

 

I started Don’t Look For Me by Wendy Walker thinking I’d read for an hour and over three hours later I had finished the book. It’s one of those that you start and just can’t stop reading. Wendy did an awesome job with the backstory for the characters and really put down a great foundation for the whole premise.

Molly Clarke’s kids don’t love her, her husband might be having an affair and she knows she is to blame for the accidental, tragic death of her young daughter five years ago. So when Molly ends up missing on a dark and stormy night, it’s totally believable that she gave up on life and did something. Maybe she ran away to start over. That would be understandable. And when a note surfaces saying something to that effect, the police believe she did a “walk away” and left of her own accord.

But Molly’s daughter Nicole senses something is amiss and sets off on uncovering what truly happened to her mother. Though they have gone through some rough times, she knows her mother wouldn’t abandon her and her brother Evan.

And soon we learn that Molly was picked up after running out of gas on the side of the road. A man and his daughter gave Molly a ride to their home where she was offered clean, dry clothes and a warm bed. She was promised that the man would call her family and let them know she was safe. But Molly suspects he didn’t call. And she soon begins to wonder if he is ever going to let Molly out of his house.

With alternating chapters from Nicole and Molly’s point of view, we see what Molly is going through and we witness Nicole’s pursuit of finding her mother and putting her trust in people she shouldn’t.

The tension is tight, the suspense is heart pounding and the author did such a fabulous job writing the book that I wasn’t even mad she made me stay up past my bedtime to read the entire book in one sitting!

What a great suspense this was and you will love it! Due out on September 15th. Something to look forward to!

 

 

Catherine McKenzie just gets better and better with every book she writes. I’ve long been a fan of hers, ever since her earlier books like Arranged, Forgotten, Spin. Now she is writing suspense and her latest novel, You Can’t Catch Me, was a thrilling read!

Take a look:

After being fired from her investigative journalism job for plagiarism, Jessica Williams is looking for a break from the constant press coverage. She decides to escape for a week to a resort in Mexico boasting no connections to the outside world. While waiting at the airport for her flight, she encounters a woman with the exact same name, who she dubs Jessica Two. Drawn together by the coincidence, they play a game of twenty questions to see what other similarities they share, and exchange contact information.

A week later, Jessica returns home and discover that large cash withdrawals have been made from her bank account. Security footage from the bank confirms her suspicions—Jessica Two has stolen her money. She goes to the police, only to be told that the crime is a low priority. Frustrated, she meets up with a trusted old friend, Liam, who is an investigator. When the two Google “Jessica Williams,” they get thousands of hits—Jessica was the most popular girl’s name in 1990 and Williams is almost as ubiquitous as Smith. Convinced that this isn’t the first time this scam has been run, Jessica is determined to catch the imposter, and writes a Facebook post hoping to chase down some of Jessica Two’s other victims. When she gets a number of responses, she sets a plan in motion to catch the thief, encountering a string of identically named victims along the way.

Then, the threatening messages start arriving. Filled with incredible twists and turns, You Can’t Catch Me is a tantalizing, character-driven exploration of how far people will go to get revenge.

I really enjoyed this book. The premise was a great one (stolen identity) and the story was executed very well, keeping me engaged the entire way through. It was fun to read how Jessica went about trying to catch the other Jessica and the adventures we go on as a reader earned this book four Goodreads stars.  I can envision playing out like a Lifetime movie, someone quick write the script!

I am already looking forward to Catherine’s next book! This is FREE if you have Kindle Unlimited and $4.99 if you don’t. You can pre-order here, the book will be out on June 9!

 

 

I heard about When I Was You by Amber Garza from some other writers and knew I had to get a copy. Then I saw it described as “You meets Fatal Attraction” and I was going out of my book-loving mind hoping to get an early copy so I could read it and review it. I love to read so much and am in awe of writers who can create stories that keep readers glued to every page, reading for hours, ignoring real life in favor of a fictional one.

I especially stand in admiration of writers who know how to tighten the suspense, increase the odds, create a fictional world that we want to live in for a few hours.

Lo and behold, I did get a sneak peek and it was as good as I had hoped!

Part of writing a killer novel is giving the characters a backstory that inspires sympathy which is what Amber did here. Our main character, Kelly Medina is a lonely empty nester who keeps reminiscing about when her son was little.  She wishes she could go back in time and snuggle with that sweet little boy again. So when she receives a call from the pediatrician’s office looking for a young mother with the same name, Kelly gets curious about this other woman with a small child and the exact same name. At her gym, Kelly also comes across the name. Surely the universe is telling her something like she needs to find this other person with the same name and befriend her. And ultimately, she does.

The other Kelly is indeed a young mom, a young single mother who is struggling and our main character is happy to step in and help. Maybe she gets a little too involved as her husband and best friend start growing concerned about the amount of time Kelly is spending with her new friend.

But who is this other Kelly Medina, really? Is something off here about either Kelly? Which one can we trust?

Synopsis:

It all begins on an ordinary fall morning when Kelly Medina gets a call from her son’s pediatrician to confirm her upcoming “well-baby” appointment. It’s a cruel mistake; her son left for college a year ago, and Kelly’s never felt so alone. The receptionist quickly apologizes: there’s another mother in town named Kelly Medina, and she must have gotten their numbers switched.

For days, Kelly can’t stop thinking about the woman who shares her name. Lives in her same town. Has a son she can still hold, and her whole life ahead of her. She can’t help looking for her: at the grocery store, at the gym, on social media. When Kelly just happens to bump into the single mother outside that pediatrician’s office, it’s simple curiosity getting the better of her.

Their unlikely friendship brings Kelly a renewed sense of purpose—taking care of this young woman and her adorable baby boy. But that friendship quickly turns to obsession, and when one Kelly disappears, well, the other one may know why.

This book was just as good as I hoped it would be! This was another one that I read in record time and can’t wait for other book-loving people to read it as well!

Pre-order it now, it will be published on August 25.