The good books keep coming out! This year, so far, my favorites have included these amazing novels:
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
Not A Happy Family by Shari Lapena
I Don’t Forgive You by Aggie Blum Thompson
The Sister-in-Law by Pamela Crane
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron
The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding
You cannot go wrong with any of them, they were all excellent!
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And now, here is what to read in September!
I love a story like this with unsuspecting people are at a location where something inevitably goes wrong…like murder. Take a look at the synopsis for Stranded by Sarah Goodwin:
When eight people arrive on the beautiful but remote Buidseach Island, they are ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live alone for one year.
Eighteen months later, a woman is found in an isolated fishing village. She’s desperate to explain what happened to her. How the group fractured and friends became enemies. How they did what they must to survive until the boat came to collect them; how things turned deadly when the boat didn’t come.
But first, she must come to terms with the devastating secret that left them stranded, and her own role in the events that saw eight arrive and only three leave…
Out on September 16
One of my favorite authors for quick, easy suspense novels that you can read in a day- Shalini Boland has a new book coming out, The Couple Upstairs.
I was totally intrigued by the synopsis:
Our new home was supposed to be a chance to leave our past behind. But was moving here the worst mistake of our lives?
All our friends and family were gathered, glasses raised to toast our fresh start. It should have been a night for happiness and celebration. Zac and I had worked so hard for this: our first home together, just minutes from the sea. But the dream quickly turned into a nightmare…
We’d invited our neighbours too. I wanted to make a good impression – to show them we’re exactly the sort of people they want living on their street.
I hadn’t thought about who they might be, the strangers I was letting in.
It was going so well. There was laughter in the air and the wine was flowing. But then I noticed the narrowed eyes, the whispers.
And then the lights went out.
As my heart thumped in my chest, all the little things that had been going wrong since we moved here flashed through my mind: the food poisoning, the arguments, the flood of nasty reviews shaking my business.
Am I going crazy? Or is someone trying to destroy us?
And this novel didn’t disappoint! I read it quickly and enjoyed every page. It kept me guessing and I highly recommend this for anyone who wants a suspense but nothing super dark or gritty or scary.
This will be published on September 13.
If you haven’t read books by Carla Kovach, you are missing out. But the good news is that there are several to choose from and you can grab one of her novels right now. They are all so suspenseful, well written and I promise you will love them as much as I do.
Her latest is titled What She Did.
Synopsis:
Marissa lives alone in her tiny one-bed apartment. It’s quiet and safe; all she’s ever wanted since the night her mother was killed in front of her. But when the police knock on her door with the news that her last remaining family member has been murdered, she comes face to face with the trauma she has spent a lifetime running from.
A witness saw her car outside his house that day, but Marissa knows she’s innocent. She hasn’t seen her uncle in years and remembers going to bed in her own home that night. But she’s had blackouts before and can’t always trust her memory.
Days later, Marissa’s neighbour is found dead in his home with stab wounds all over his body, exactly like her uncle. It was no secret that Marissa didn’t get on with her neighbour, but she’d never want to see him hurt. How can she convince the police that she isn’t a killer? And, as the secrets from her past take hold of her present, is there anyone in her small world she can trust?
As you read, you’ll believe every word Marissa says. You’ll think you know where to draw the line between innocence and guilt. But blame is a dangerous thing, and nothing is ever what it seems…
SO GOOD.
Don’t miss this one, it’s out on September 20.
If you enjoy multiple characters and timelines, you will like Dark Things I Adore by Katie Lattari. I was immediately intrigued by the title, how could you not be? It just implies something suspenseful and a little sinister.
Here’s the synopsis:
Three campfire secrets. Two witnesses. One dead in the trees. And the woman, thirty years later, bent on making the guilty finally pay.
1988. A group of outcasts gather at a small, prestigious arts camp nestled in the Maine woods. They’re the painters: bright, hopeful, teeming with potential. But secrets and dark ambitions rise like smoke from a campfire, and the truths they tell will come back to haunt them in ways more deadly than they dreamed.
2018. Esteemed art professor Max Durant arrives at his protégé’s remote home to view her graduate thesis collection. He knows Audra is beautiful and brilliant. He knows being invited into her private world is a rare gift. But he doesn’t know that Audra has engineered every aspect of their weekend together. Every detail, every conversation. Audra has woven the perfect web.
Only Audra knows what happened that summer in 1988. Max’s secret, and the dark things that followed. And even though it won’t be easy, Audra knows someone must pay.
I enjoyed this book and think you will too! It comes out on September 14.
New favorite author alert- Lia Louis. This is not a genre I typically reach for, a contemporary romance, but after reading and loving Dear Emmie Blue, I knew I needed to read Eight Perfect Hours.
Check it out:
On a snowy evening in March, thirty-something Noelle Butterby is on her way back from an event at her old college when disaster strikes. With a blizzard closing off roads, she finds herself stranded, alone in her car, without food, drink, or a working charger for her phone.
All seems lost until Sam Attwood, a handsome American stranger also trapped in a nearby car, knocks on her window and offers assistance. What follows is eight perfect hours together, until morning arrives and the roads finally clear. The two strangers part, positive they’ll never see each other again but fate, it seems, has a different plan. As the two keep serendipitously bumping into one another, they begin to realize that perhaps there truly is no such thing as coincidence.
Sometimes its really nice to take a break with the mysteries and suspense novels I enjoy and this was perfect. I love the author’s writing style and reading this book is like getting a warm hug and a mug of hot tea on a cold afternoon.
Coming out on September 28.
This book is out now!
I absolutely love anything ballet-related so of course, I HAD to read The Turnout by Megan Abbott. It lived up to my expectations!
Take a look:
With their long necks and matching buns and pink tights, Dara and Marie Durant have been dancers since they can remember. Growing up, they were homeschooled and trained by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents’ death in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters began running the school together, along with Charlie, Dara’s husband and once their mother’s prized student.
Marie, warm and soft, teaches the younger students; Dara, with her precision, trains the older ones; and Charlie, sidelined from dancing after years of injuries, rules over the back office. Circling around one another, the three have perfected a dance, six days a week, that keeps the studio thriving. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school’s annual performance of The Nutcracker—a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration—an interloper arrives and threatens the sisters’ delicate balance.
Don’t miss this fantastic novel!
