The Beginning and End of Us by Rose James is a beautifully written story that gripped me from page one. It’s definitely a departure from what I like to read which is suspense and thrillers.
Here’s what you need to know:
I wish it didn’t have to be this way, I thought, willing the thought to fly to you so you’d know how hard it was to leave you behind. That was the night I lost you, and gained myself.
Born in a honeysuckle-choked garden deep in the forest, Aphrodite – young, sensitive and beautiful – learns her true purpose in the world moments before she’s cast out of the only home she’s ever known.
Haunted by loneliness, she begins a journey to fulfill her destiny. It is a path that will lead her into the arms of four very different men – a dreamer, a fighter, an artist and a lost soul. All human, all flawed and all on their own journeys of painful self-discovery.
But could it be the secrets she left behind – and the one person she thought she had lost forever – that hold the answers to the questions she’s seeking? For while life may take you unexpected places, truth will bring you home…
An unputdownable, life-affirming epic, filled with ordinary yet extraordinary people, The Beginning and End of Us is a magical story in which you will recognise yourself, from the sweetness of a rain-drenched first kiss to the terrible pain when you realise it’s finally over.
One word to describe this story: magical.
Due out on November 21.
The Other Daughter by Shalini Boland was just as good as I had hoped it would be. I am a big fan of this author and have read several of her other novels, all fantastic. When you pick up a book by Shalini, you know you are in good hands. You can expect to be thoroughly entertained with a suspenseful plot and characters that evoke sympathy. As a parent, it was my worst fear to have my kids stolen from me in a busy place, I was always hyper-vigilant but not perfect. It could happen to anyone and in this book, it happens to Rachel.
Nine years ago her daughter was taken. And now she’s back. Two-and-a-half-year-old Holly is playing happily in a pink plastic playhouse, while her mother Rachel sips coffee and chats with a friend nearby. It should be an ordinary day for all of them. But, in the blink of an eye, it turns into every family’s worst nightmare.
Holly is taken by a stranger and never found. Nine years later, Rachel is living a quiet life in Dorset. She’s tried to keep things together since the traumatic day when she lost her eldest daughter. She has a new family, a loving partner and her secrets are locked away in her painful past.
Until one afternoon when Rachel meets a new school parent Kate and her teenage daughter Bella. Rachel’s world is instantly turned upside down – she’s seen Bella before. She’d recognise that face anywhere – it’s her missing child. And she will stop at nothing to get her back…
I think at one point I actually said, “WHAT? Seriously?” I loved this book and can’t wait to read whatever she writes next.
Get this book on November 5, 2019. Pre-order here!
The Empty Nest by Sue Watson was a great novel! I really liked it, I wasn’t sure which way the story was going to go. I thought maybe the mother was a little crazy, obsessive, depended on her daughter for too much. But the step-father might have been involved too…this book kept me guessing and I loved the uncertainty of it!
Kat remembers the days when her only daughter Amy wouldn’t leave her side. Amy was the baby who cried when you walked out of the room, the toddler who was too shy to speak to strangers, the small child who clung to Kat’s legs in the school playground.
But now Amy is grown up, and Amy is gone – to university in a town several hours away. Kat’s house – which once felt too full, too noisy, too busy – is deathly quiet, and Kat awaits the daily phone call to tell her that her beloved daughter is thriving and happy.
But one day Amy doesn’t call. Kat’s husband and friends think she is being paranoid – surely Amy is just out, having fun with her friends. But Kat knows right away that something is very wrong. Her daughter would never forget to call. She would never just disappear… After all, Amy has nothing to run from. Or does she?
Sue Watson is another author I have on my “To Watch” list! I will be eagerly awaiting whatever she writes next because she’s proven to be a very good suspense writer with this book and her other thrillers, Our Little Lies and The Woman Next Door -both were terrific!
Pre-order The Empty Nest here! Coming out on November first.
This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay is a fantastic memoir about Adam’s experience as a doctor and it’s both sad and funny. I am intrigued by health and medicine so I was especially interested in reading details and insight from the “front lines” of care. I don’t think I should be heading into medical school anytime soon.
Synopsis:
Adam Kay was a junior doctor from 2004 until 2010, before a devastating experience on a ward caused him to reconsider his future. He kept a diary throughout his training, and This Is Going to Hurt intersperses tales from the front line of the NHS with reflections on the current crisis. The result is a first-hand account of life as a junior doctor in all its joy, pain, sacrifice and maddening bureaucracy, and a love letter to those who might at any moment be holding our lives in their hands.
This is based in England so if you are looking for an expose on American hospitals and doctors, you won’t find it here. I always love British humor and all things England related so I really enjoyed this book though I did cringe several times while reading it.
Get it here now and clear your afternoon so you can read it in one sitting!
Here’s another book I read and enjoyed, In Her Eyes by Sarah Alderson. It kept me turning pages and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen or who I could trust. I like it when a thriller keeps me guessing. Sometimes I can figure out what is going to happen so when I can’t piece it all together or I do and I’m wrong… I’m happy. I want to be wrong and have the author keep me on my toes!
Synopsis:
Ava’s life is the kind other people envy: loving husband; great kids; beautiful house. Until the night that a violent home invasion plunges her world into chaos.
In the aftermath of the attack, Ava needs answers to two questions. Who has targeted her family? And why? But things aren’t adding up. She is starting to suspect that someone knows more than they are letting on. That everything she thought she knew about the people closest to her was a lie.
Ava needs to know what happened that night. And to do that she must decide who she can really trust. Because she’s about to discover that her family is in more danger than she ever imagined…
This book has some twists and turns and I really liked it. I might have gasped out loud a few times! If you are a fan of domestic thrillers, get a copy when it comes out on November 14, only $2.99 on Kindle!
The Last Affair by Margot Hunt was a book that hooked me right away. I enjoy the author’s writing and knew I would like this book since her other novels were so good. If you haven’t read Best Friends Forever or For Better and Worse, get them right away.
The Last Affair offers up a love triangle, a murder, and the ending leaves the potential for a sequel.
Nora Holliday is not that kind of woman. Not the kind who has an illicit affair with a married man. But Josh Landon is everything Nora’s alcoholic husband isn’t. And now she and Josh are so infatuated, they can’t stay away from one another.
Abby Landon, Josh’s daughter, is home from college nursing a broken heart. She’s seeking solace, not more scandal, so when she catches her dad kissing Nora, she vows to take the homewrecker down.
And as for Abby’s mother and Josh’s wife, Gwen? To anyone on the outside looking in, the mother of two appears to be living the ideal suburban life.
Until she winds up dead.
The serene seaside town of Shoreham has always been the perfect place to raise a family—not somewhere housewives are brutally murdered. So who killed Gwen Landon, and how many twisted secrets will be exposed as the vindictive plot comes undone?
If you like domestic thrillers then I think you will like this one. It’s due out on November 26 and you can pre-order it here.
The Paris Girl by Natalie Meg Evans takes you to Paris in the 1920’s. Do you even need to know more than that? A beautiful place during a time of gorgeous fashion and glamour, Paris is home to Tatiana, a young woman working as a model. What a different life she leads now compared to when she was poor and struggling! Of course, life isn’t all glitz and wealth and happiness…
Here’s the plot:
Tatiana Vytenis has worked hard to leave her past behind. Once a ruined Russian princess in hiding, she is now a sought-after model and engaged to Gérard de Sainte-Vierge – a handsome, if occasionally overbearing, aristocrat. With the Sainte-Vierge heirloom ruby sparkling on her finger, Tatiana feels as though she should be happy. Not long ago she was penniless and now she’s about to become a marquise.
But fate still has a final hand to play. One night in a bohemian café in Montparnasse, Tatiana discovers she’s been the unknowing plaything of the Sainte-Vierge family. Hidden beneath their genteel exteriors, Gerard and his brother have a secret darker side, and her darling fiancé will gladly ruin Tatiana’s life to save his own reputation.
As Tatiana’s situation becomes ever more desperate, she crosses paths with an unlikely guardian angel. Regan Dortmeyer is an American in Paris – a war photographer running from his own hard knocks in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. He’s no fancy French nobleman, but Regan has seen the lengths to which a wicked man like Gerard will go. As the consequences of her disastrous engagement threaten to swallow Tatiana up, he might be the only one who can save her now.
I love stunning, gripping historical fiction like this book. It’s always nice to switch up genres and I do like to read mostly thrillers with some historical fiction and memoirs thrown in to mix it all up. Natalie Meg Evans writes so well, I will read anything she comes out with. I absolutely adored The Milliner’s Secret! Have you read it?
This book will be out on October 31, order it now for $3.99!
The Rival by Charlotte Duckworth is the last book I read, I just finished it! It’s such a great book and I loved the writing, the pace, the plot, and characters. Charlotte Duckworth is definitely another writer whose future works I will be eager to read! I read her upcoming novel, Unfollow Me, and was totally hooked. I then got a hold of The Rival and its equally as intriguing.
Here’s the plot:
NOW: Living in her home in the countryside HELENA is a career woman without a job and a mother without a baby. She blames ASHLEY for destroying her life. But is what happened really Ashley’s fault?
THEN: When Helena hires Ashley to work with her, she’s startled but impressed by her fierce ambition. They form a dream team and Helena is proud -maybe this is the protégé she’s always wanted to have? But soon Helena realises that nothing will stand in the way of Ashley’s drive to get to the top. And when Helena discovers she is pregnant, she quickly realises how vulnerable her position is, with devastating consequences.
The book was really good and then during the last quarter of the book, there was a bit of a twist. I’m still thinking about it. Charlotte is a wonderful writer and I cannot wait to see what she writes next.
I just realized that I bought this book last year and then rebought it recently and read it this week. I have a surplus of books and forget what I have purchased. Anyone else?
Here’s a link to the $1.99 kindle version!
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