I’ve read many, many books and Leah Konen’s novels always stand out for her ability to have the most insane pacing. I love and hate the books she writes because I am beyond anxious the whole time I’m reading. Keep Your Friends Close is her newest, let me tell you- it does not disappoint!
Synopsis:
Isolated and embroiled in a custody battle, Mary is desperate for a friend. So when she meets the charming and enigmatic Willa at a Brooklyn playground, their connection feels fated. But during a margarita-fueled moms’ night out, Mary shares her darkest secret about her ex, George, and the next morning Willa simply disappears. No calls, no texts, nothing.
Two months later, Mary’s divorce is almost finalized, and she’s trying to build a new life for her son in upstate New York. On her first day in town, she runs into Willa . . . only Willa’s name is now Annie, and she’s got an entirely new family in tow. When George turns up dead and Mary becomes the prime suspect, she has no choice but to turn to her only friend in town: Willa.
As coincidences—and evidence—pile up, Mary begins to wonder whether Willa had something to do with George’s death. Is the woman a friend or a foe, a confidante or just a con? Mary must uncover the truth before she loses everything.
Out on Feb 20th!
I was so excited when I saw that B.A. Paris was coming out with a new novel. The Guest was a solid read and I enjoyed it. I’ve read many mixed reviews on this but I went into it knowing very little about the plot and just enjoyed it for what it was, an entertaining read. I will always want to read B.A. Paris’s novels, I am rarely disappointed.
If you didn’t read Behind Close Doors, get it right now. It was AMAZING.
Here’s the synopsis:
Some secrets never leave.
Iris and Gabriel have just arrived home from a make-or-break holiday. But a shock awaits them. One of their closest friends, Laure, is in their house. The atmosphere quickly becomes tense as she oversteps again and again: sleeping in their bed, wearing Iris’ clothes, even rearranging the furniture.
Laure has walked out on her husband—and their good friend—Pierre, over his confession of an affair and a secret child. Iris and Gabriel want to be supportive of their friends, but as Laure’s mood becomes increasingly unpredictable, her presence takes its toll.
Iris and Gabriel’s only respite comes in the form of a couple new to town. But with them comes their gardener, who has a checkered past.
Soon, secrets from all their pasts will unravel, some more dangerous than they could have known.
This comes out on February 20, there is a Goodreads giveaway happening right now for this book!
I couldn’t wait to read The Women by Kristin Hannah, especially when I learned about the plot. I’m very drawn to anything related to women during the Vietnam War and I dove right into this one, not coming up for air until the very end. For many of us, this author is an automatic read- I see her name and want to read whatever she writes. This book is getting solid four and five star reviews, it’s just fantastic.
Highly recommended- if you haven’t already read it!
Synopsis:
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.
But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.
Read it now! Get it today, its so good!
I absolutely love historical fiction set in Ireland. So I was very happy to read Sisters of Belfast by Melanie Maure. This is a tragic and emotional novel set in Belfast. That city is rich in history and if you ever get the chance to visit, GO. The novel isn’t a happy one but I was engrossed in the story of sisters Aelish and Isabel.
If you are in the mood to settle in with a deep novel that is in turns serious, moving and gripping, this is the book for you.
Synopsis:
Orphaned during the Second World War, Aelish and Isabel McGuire—known as the twins of Belfast—are given over to the austere care of the Sisters of Bethlehem. Though they are each all the other has, the girls are propelled in opposite directions as they grow up. Rebellious Isabel turns her back on the church and Ireland, traveling to Newfoundland where she pursues a perilous yet independent life. Devout Aelish chooses to remain in Northern Ireland and takes the veil, burying painful truths beneath years of silence. For decades the two are separated, each unaware of the other’s life. But after years of isolation Aelish is unexpectedly summoned to Newfoundland, where she and her estranged sister begin to bridge the chasm between them.
Reunion brings to light the painful secrets and seismic deceptions that have kept these sisters apart, leaving the McGuire twins to begin reconstructing their understanding about themselves as women and as family–what they know of love, hope, and above all, forgiveness.
A story of faith—in religion, in the world, and in one another—Sisters of Belfast is a heartbreaking, tragic, and deeply moving novel about survival and the enduring power of sisterhood.
Out on Feb. 27.
I devoured Vera Kurian’s novel, Never Saw Me Coming so I was excited to get my hands on A Step Past Darkness, her latest. This is a long book with a lot of characters to keep track of and it took me a while to get into the rhythm of the story.
Sinister, thrilling, and creepy always appeals to me, so I enjoyed this though it has supernatural elements which I do not usually gravitate towards.
Synopsis:
There’s something sinister under the surface of the idyllic, suburban town of Wesley Falls, and it’s not just the abandoned coal mine that lies beneath it. The summer of 1995 kicks off with a party in the mine where six high school students witness a horrifying crime that changes the course of their lives.
The six couldn’t be more different.
- Maddy, a devout member of the local megachurch
- Kelly, the bookworm next door
- James, a cynical burnout
- Casey, a loveable football player
- Padma, the shy straight-A student
- Jia, who’s starting to see visions she can’t explain
When they realize that they can’t trust anyone but each other, they begin to investigate what happened on their own. As tensions escalate in town to a breaking point, the six make a vow of silence, bury all their evidence, and promise to never contact each other again. Their plan works – almost.
Twenty years later, Jia calls them all back to Wesley Falls—Maddy has been murdered, and they are the only ones who can uncover why. But to end things, they have to return to the mine one last time.
Coming out on Feb 20.
A huge, old mansion is the setting for The Traitors by C.A. Lynch. It’s a locked-room thriller that involves six people receiving invitations to spend a full day in this creepy manor. Whoever lasts the full 24 hours can win a portion of one million dollars. That doesn’t sound bad until you hear that this mansion was the site of a terrible murder years ago. Could you do it? I have heard of people moving into the homes where murders have taken place and that’s just not something I could do.
In this book, we get the points of view from the different characters. There is an impostor among the group – who is it? It could be any one of them. I liked this novel, it kept me interested, but I didn’t love the murders that took place. You’ll see! I won’t give anything else away.
Synopsis:
Six people find a thick cream envelope on their doorstep. Inside is an invitation to spend 24 hours in a crumbling manor house and be in with the chance to win a portion of one million dollars. The catch: Beechwood Castle was the site of one of the most horrific murders in modern history.
The smell of blood, decay and death still hangs heavy in the air.
Six people walk into the house. One of them is an imposter, all of them are traitors, which of them will survive the night?
This is out now!
There are certain books that are like comfort suspense. You sit down and you know you’re in good hands with the author who is going to take you on a journey and you’re going to like it. These authors include Kiersten Modglin and Freida McFadden. The books are just the right amount of suspense, the right amount of pages and the right blend of intriguing plot and sympathetic characters.
The Teachers Secret by Lauren North embodies those elements too. I enjoyed this book, and highly recommend her 2019 novel, The Perfect Son.
Synopsis:
It’s only been a week, but the bright little faces at the picture-perfect school I’ve stepped into have captured my heart. Their big doe eyes, their paint-covered fingers and clinging hugs. They’ve been through so much, with their favourite teacher and classmate still missing…
I’m doing all I can to help them adjust, but I can’t avoid the swirling rumours that say Cate Walker’s charismatic husband, Oliver – our headteacher – is involved in her disappearance. The thought makes me shudder. But the more I find out about Cate, the more I wonder if she was also hiding a terrible secret…
I’m determined to uncover the truth about what really happened. I have to protect these other innocent children from the same fate – it’s my duty as their teacher.
That is, until an anonymous note turns up threatening me if I don’t stop looking. Until my home is broken into while I sleep.
I know the longer I stay here, the more danger I’m in.
But whoever’s trying to scare me doesn’t know who I am – or why I’m really here.
Out on Feb 23
I just finished The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker. Instantly intrigued with little Cecily as her mother dropped her off at the orphanage in 1924 with the promise to come back to her, she is never seen again. I wish we learned more about the mother and her story, I kept thinking we were going to find out more but we don’t.
In any case, Cecily is at the orphanage for a while until she’s sold into a traveling circus. The book flips between Cecily in the circus as a young girl, then teenager, and to present day where she has hidden her past from her daughter and grand daughter. We delve a bit into the lives of Liz, Cecily’s daughter and Molly, her daughter.
We also learn about another family, linked to Cecily. Its the DNA test that Molly’s son does that opens the can of worms that Cecily’s hidden life.
Synopsis:
In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to be back once she’s made enough money to support both Cecily and herself. But she never returns, and shortly after high-spirited Cecily turns seven, she is sold to a traveling circus to perform as the “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. With Isabelle and the rest of the circus, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected—and dangerous—course.
In 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota, with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she’s raised and claimed as her own for nearly seventy years. Cecily and everyone in her life must now decide who they really are and what family—and forgiveness—really mean.
This comes out on Feb 20th.
The Good Husband by Steve Frech was a terrific suspense novel! It’s one of those classic thrillers that keeps you up at night and leaves you guessing. You just can’t trust anyone here. Its a twisty novel you can easily read in one sitting, it just keeps flowing!
The synopsis is this- when Mark’s wife Amy is found dead; he knows something weird happened. And when the police declare her death an overdose, he knows that’s not possible. So he is determined to find out what happened to her, even when the police refuse to help.
Synopsis:
Mark Burcham and his wife Amy live the perfect life: they have a happy marriage, a comfortable home in Los Angeles and a beautiful daughter, Tatum. But one night Amy fails to come home from a business trip to Boston, and her office have no record of a client on the east coast.
Then Mark gets the worst news of all; Amy has been found dead. But nothing makes sense. Why was Amy still in town, when he’d waved her off at the airport a few days before? Who was the mysterious client she’d been meeting with for months? There’s only one thing Mark knows for certain: his wife was keeping secrets.
As he digs deeper into the life Amy tried to keep hidden, Mark realizes that someone is trying to stop him, someone who is watching his every move. And when they threaten Tatum to keep him from discovering the truth, Mark will stop at nothing to keep his family safe…
This will be out on Feb 27.
I enjoy a good historical fiction book and it seems like Kate Quinn is one of the best authors out there who consistently writes excellent stories. The Phoenix Crown, written with Janie Chang, was a fantastic novel that held my attention from start to finish. I have ADHD and cannot concentrate for long periods without taking a break and feeling antsy unless a book has really hooked me and this did!
Set in San Francisco, the story includes the devastation of the big earthquake which did massive damage to the city. I love reading about this time and there are just not enough books out there set during the earthquake.
A side character named Alice Eastwood is a botanist who works as a curator at the Californian Academy of Science, and she is a very unusual and interesting character.
Synopsis:
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.
His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.
Out on Feb 13!
