Caroline Leavitt is one of my favorite authors ever. It was many years ago when I stumbled upon one of her books and I quickly worked my way through everything she ever wrote. She’s just one of those authors who can not only craft a beautiful sentence but can wring emotions from her characters and the reader cannot help but be invested in what happens next.
With Or Without You is coming to us this summer. Of course its nothing less than brilliant.
After almost twenty years together, Stella and Simon are starting to run into problems. An up-and-coming rock musician when they first met, Simon has been clinging to dreams of fame even as the possibility of it has grown dimmer, and now that his band might finally be on the brink again, he wants to go on the road, leaving Stella behind. But when she falls into a coma on the eve of his departure, he has to make a choice between stardom and his wife—and when she wakes a different person, with an incredible artistic talent of her own, the two of them must examine what it is that they really want.
You don’t want to miss this novel, be sure to read everything else she’s written before With or Without You comes out in August.
Pre-Order here, coming out on August 4
Lisa Unger’s Confessions on the 7:45 isn’t coming out until October but like Caroline Leavitt above, she has a fantastic body of work to check out right now!
I just love the premise of this book and was hooked right away.
Take a look:
Selena Murphy is commuting home from her job in the city when the train stalls out on the tracks. She strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat, and their connection is fast and easy. The woman introduces herself as Martha and confesses that she’s been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selena’s station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again.
But days later, Selena’s nanny disappears.
Soon Selena finds her once-perfect life upended. As she is pulled into the mystery of the missing nanny, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, Selena begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she’ll discover.
This book promises to take you on a trip that’s twisty and surprising and gripping. You will want to read this in a single afternoon so clear your schedule!
Coming out on October 6, pre-order here!
Everyone I know who loves to read is excited for What You Wish For by Katherine Center. She is a fantastic author and though she has a lot of awesome books, my favorite is one of her first novels, Happiness for Beginners. I loved that book!
Synopsis:
Samantha Casey loves everything about her job as an elementary school librarian on the sunny, historic island of Galveston, Texas—the goofy kids, the stately Victorian building, the butterfly garden. But when the school suddenly loses its beloved principal, it turns out his replacement will be none other than Duncan Carpenter—a former, unrequited crush of Sam’s from many years before.
When Duncan shows up as her new boss, though, he’s nothing like the sweet teacher she once swooned over. He’s become stiff, and humorless, and obsessed with school safety. Now, with Duncan determined to destroy everything Sam loves about her school in the name of security—and turn it into nothing short of a prison—Sam has to stand up for everyone she cares about before the school that’s become her home is gone for good.
This new book is getting great early reviews and they are well deserved. If you like relatable and fleshed out characters plus a plot that’s going to tug at your heart and make you travel on an emotional adventure, this is for you.
You can pre-order the book here and it will be published on July 14.
Everyone loved The Winter Sister and now author Megan Collins brings us Behind The Red Door. The premise is that Fern, our main character, feels that she has a connection to a case of a missing woman. How is she connected? Does she really know Astrid, the woman who has been abducted? Or maybe this was all just a nightmare? Who knows?!
Take a look:
When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping—and equally famous return—twenty years ago, but Fern has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New Hampshire hometown. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory.
Back home in New Hampshire, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir—which may have provoked her original kidnapper to abduct her again—and as she reads through its chapters and visits the people and places within it, she discovers more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. As Fern’s search becomes increasingly desperate, she hopes to remember her past so she can save Astrid in the present…before it’s too late.
I love the author’s writing style, she’s very creative and this book was paced well to keep the reader turning the pages quickly. This book was at times, disturbing.
If you pre-order here, the book will be magically delivered on August 4!
If you haven’t read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, do it immediately! It was one of my favorite books thanks to the beautiful writing and the heartwarming- and heartbreaking- story.
I have read everything Rachel Joyce has written. She is an author who crafts such great stories, I don’t even care too much about the plot, I just know she’s a master storyteller and I want to read whatever she writes.
Miss Benson’s Beetle looks like the quirky kind of story that I absolutely love and don’t find too many so when I do, I soak them in.
Take a look:
Margery Benson’s life ended the day her father walked out of his study and never came back. Forty years later, abandoning a dull job, she advertises for an assistant. The successful candidate is to accompany Margery on an expedition to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist. Enid Pretty is not who she had in mind. But together they will find themselves drawn into an adventure that exceeds all Margery’s expectations, eventually finding new life at the top of a red mountain.
I loved everything about this book- the characters, the writing, the story. Its witty, fun, and clever. As I read it, I kept thinking that it would make an excellent TV series. Its a fun read with a little sadness, and I enjoyed every second of reading it.
I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but as soon as I saw the book, I was intrigued. Someone’s Listening by Seraphina Nova Glass is a captivating novel with lots of suspense. I think you will be totally invested in the story from the beginning pages right up until the very end.
Synopsis:
Faith Finley has it all: she’s a talented psychologist with a flourishing career, a bestselling author and the host of a popular local radio program, Someone’s Listening, with Dr. Faith Finley. She’s married to the perfect man, Liam Finley, a respected food critic.
Until the night everything goes horribly wrong, and Faith’s life is shattered forever. Liam is missing—gone without a trace—and the police are suspicious of everything Faith says. They either think she has something to hide, or that she’s lost her mind.
And then the notes begin to arrive. Notes that are ripped from Faith’s own book, the one that helps victims leave their abusers. Notes like “Lock your windows. Consider investing in a steel door.”
As the threats escalate, the mystery behind Liam’s disappearance intensifies. And Faith’s very life will depend on finding answers
This novel checks all the boxes for me: Interesting characters? CHECK. Intriguing plot? CHECK. Great writing? CHECK. Suspense throughout? CHECK. This thriller is one that you don’t want to miss. I look forward to what Seraphina writes next.
This will be published on July 28, get it here!
Until I Find You by Rea Frey was a great book but I have to tell you that anything with the eyes freaks me out. In this book, the character of Rebecca is losing her eyesight. That just gives me chills. Can you even imagine losing a vital part of yourself like that?
Add to that, Rebecca’s son is missing. Who is this other child? Where is her?
Eye loss AND the loss of a child? OMG.
Synopsis:
Soon, Rebecca Gray won’t be able to see. Diagnosed in her twenties with a degenerative eye disease, each day her world grows a little darker. She’s moved to the suburbs to raise her son, Jackson. In the wake of her husband’s death, it should be a quieter, easier way of life. It won’t be.
When Bec awakes after fainting in the park, she makes promises to start taking better care of herself. When her son begins to cry, she approaches the crib. Reaches in. Picks him up. But he’s not her son.
There’s nothing Bec won’t do to find Jackson. But she’s a blind woman in a world where seeing is believing. The police think she’s confused. Her friends don’t see any differences. Relying on the conviction of her instinct and the power of a mother’s love, Bec must push the limits of her world to uncover what happened to her baby boy…and bring him home for good.
This is a dark, heart wrenching, depressing, and chilling story but its also emotional, gripping, and very well written. Highly recommended!
Coming out on August 11, pre-order here.
Lucinda Riley has long been a favorite author of mine. I’ve read several of her books and really enjoy them!
The sixth and latest book in her Seven Sisters series is The Sun Sister. The basic premise of the series is that a wealthy billionaire adopted seven girls and each of them is named after “The Seven Sisters of the Pleiades” constellation. The girls don’t know their true identity and don’t know much about their father who they call Pa Salt. Every book explores one of the sisters and her own personal journey.
Lucinda paints such a beautiful picture of the world in her stories and long after I close the book, the story and setting stay with me. Each book is just incredible and so beautifully written with rich details, I don’t know what kind of magic she uses to write these stories because each one is so detailed and nuanced, it seems like they’d take many years to write.
Synopsis:
To the outside world, Electra d’Apliese seems as though she is the woman who has everything: as one of the world’s top models, she is beautiful, rich and famous. But beneath the veneer, and fuelled by the pressure of the life she leads, Electra’s already tenuous control over her mental state has been rocked by the death of her father, Pa Salt, the elusive billionaire who adopted his six daughters as babies from around the globe. Struggling to cope, she turns to alcohol and drugs to ease the pain, and as those around her fear for her health, Electra receives a letter from a complete stranger who claims to be her grandmother . . .
In 1939, Cecily Huntley-Morgan arrives in Kenya from New York to nurse a broken heart. Staying with her godmother, a member of the infamous Happy Valley set, on the shores of beautiful Lake Naivasha, she meets Bill Forsythe, a notorious bachelor and cattle farmer with close connections to the proud Maasai tribe. When disaster strikes and war is imminent, Cecily decides she has no choice but to accept Bill’s proposal. Moving up into the Wanjohi Valley, and with Bill away, Cecily finds herself isolated and alone. Until she discovers a new-born baby abandoned in the woods next to her farmhouse…
I love sinking into one of these sweeping books and if you enjoy historical fiction, then you will probably enjoy this series too. Each novel is epic, very long but perfect when you want a story that takes you to another time and You can start at the beginning with the first in the series, The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters, #1) and go through each book including The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2), The Shadow Sister (The Seven Sisters #3), The Pearl Sister (The Seven Sisters #4), The Moon Sister (The Seven Sisters, #5), and The Sun Sister (The Seven Sisters, #6).
Pre-order here, will be delivered on May 19!
So many people read and loved Temper by Layne Fargo and her book, They Never Learn, is sure to please her fans! I was intrigued by the plot and expected dark suspense. It was!
Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder.
Every year, she searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself—but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Scarlett insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge, Dr. Mina Pierce. Everything’s going according to her master plan…until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.
Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year. Finally free of her emotionally abusive father, all Carly wants is to focus on her studies and fade into the background. Her new roommate has other ideas. Allison Hadley is cool and confident—everything Carly wishes she could be—and the two girls quickly form an intense friendship. So when Allison is sexually assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay…and turning her fantasies about revenge into a reality.
I read this in a single day, I was glued to the pages wanting to know what happened next.
There are some surprises and twists in this novel which makes the whole book carry an air of suspense. You can’t really fault someone for wanting to kill those who hurt women, can you? As Scarlett continues to deliver justice to these awful men, her cover is about to be blown and she may lose control of her secret hobby. It feels so wrong to want her to get away with these crimes, you will see what I mean when you read this book.
