NEW Books: Obsessions, Secrets, Lies

Yesterday I wanted to read a thriller and started and stopped a couple of books before settling in with The New Girl by Harriet Walker. I love the idea of an older/younger woman in the workplace with a little bit of ill intent!

Margot is a fashion editor headed out for maternity leave, Maggie is the ambitious young woman filling in for her. Yes, they have similar names.

We learn quickly that Maggie loves the job and doesn’t want to leave. Like many of us, Margot deals with a lot of insecurities and is always second-guessing herself. The fact that her friend Winnie ended their long friendship after her infant son died is crushing Margot. She and Winnie share a secret from their youth that I was curious about and isn’t revealed until the second part of the book.

Someone is sending cryptic, threatening messages to Margot. It could only be from a few people who know the big secret, who could it be? I was definitely curious.  Long story short, I thought the second half of the book really picked up and I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

This wasn’t a page-turning, explosive, crazy thriller,  but one of those “slow burn” types. More of a literary novel that unfolds slowly with excellent writing.

Here’s the official synopsis: 

Margot is the object of every woman’s envy: as an editor at Haute, she has a glamorous job, a beautiful new baby girl, a seemingly perfect life. But when Margot’s lifelong friend, Winnie, loses her own newborn boy, their shared dream of pushing strollers together turns to ash. And then there is the matter of Margot’s maternity temp: bright, plucky, ambitious Maggie–the young woman Margot chose, but who now seems to be trying to eclipse her in every possible way.

When a cyber-stalker emerges, mocking Margot’s façade of perfection and threatening to expose a dark secret she’s spent years repressing, Margot feels attacked from all sides. Soon, the innocent preoccupations of motherhood spiral quickly–and perhaps lethally–into a frightening and irretrievable paranoia.

This book doesn’t come until May but you can order it here, and enter to win a copy on Goodreads here!

 

 

Lie, Lie Again by Stacy Wise is a book about women living in the same building in California and their lives intersect. I kind of pictured it like Melrose Place, did you ever watch that show?

Three women, three secrets. On Mockingbird Lane, Sylvia, Embry, and Riki all harbor secrets and personal decisions that could affect other people. For Sylvia, she is dealing with the fact her boyfriend Hugh has been lying about some pretty big things, like being married.

Embry is pregnant with her third child, not great timing since her handsome husband’s acting career is going nowhere and money is tight. Riki has a boyfriend but can’t stop thinking about Embry’s husband. She’s a second-grade teacher who must contend with demanding parents who make life miserable for her at school.

Sylvia is the most devious of the bunch and I kept reading, looking forward to how she was going to confront her boyfriend about his huge lies. I went into this thinking it was  suspense, it’s really not. This is another slow read, not a thriller about evil people, rather it’s about how the women they handle their problems. There’s also a subplot of them uniting against the person who wants to sell their beloved apartment complex.

Synopsis:

All three women who live at 1054 Mockingbird Lane have secrets…and with a body at the bottom of their apartment building’s staircase, those secrets need to stay buried.

Sylvia Webb has a plan. And a potential Mr. Right. He’s sweet, simple, and dependably clueless about what she’s up to. The only thing unpredictable about him is his needy ex-girlfriend, who is this close to shattering Sylvia’s dreams. But Sylvia’s not going to let that happen.

Riki McFarlan has a good career and an amazing boyfriend who wants to settle down. If only she didn’t have feelings for her neighbor—who happens to be her close friend’s husband. With everything going so right, why is Riki flirting with something so wrong, so…dangerous?

Embry Taylor is as devoted to her children as she is to her husband, who’s a bartender by night, an aspiring actor by day. She is his biggest fan. But with his career not taking off and tensions high, even sweet Embry has something she’s desperate to keep hidden.

Lies, secrets, and revenge. For three neighbors with stakes so high, someone is headed for a downfall.

This was an entertaining read that flowed well and had a tidy ending (I always like a good ending). It will be out on November 17, you can pre-order here for only $1.99 and then be happily surprised when you get this on your Kindle in the fall!

 

 

Everyone Knows How Much I Love You by Kyle McCarthy is described as exploring the dark side of female friendship so naturally, I wanted to read it. I imaged a Single White Female type story combined with YOU.

Here’s the synopsis:

At age thirty, Rose is fierce and smart, both self-aware and singularly blind to her power over others. After moving to New York, she is unexpectedly swallowed up by her past when she reunites with Lacie, the former best friend she betrayed in high school. Captivated once again by her old friend’s strange charisma, Rose convinces Lacie to let her move in, and the two fall into an intense, uneasy friendship.

While tutoring the offspring of Manhattan’s wealthy elite, Rose works on a novel she keeps secret—because it stars Lacie and details the betrayal that almost turned deadly. But the difference between fiction and fact, past and present, begins to blur, and Rose soon finds herself increasingly drawn to Lacie’s boyfriend, exerting a sexual power she barely understands she possesses, and playing a risky game that threatens to repeat the worst moments of her and Lacie’s lives.

This was very well written and I wasn’t sure about Rose through the book. I didn’t like nor dislike her, rather I felt like I couldn’t get a handle on her but one thing was for certain, she creeped me out and I didn’t trust her.

When she’s not tutoring kids for their SATs, a job she is not really suited for, Rose works on her novel. Her agent pushes her to go further and deeper so Rose starts using Lacie as her inspiration. She is close to becoming obsessed with Lacie and starts to flirt and grow close to Lacie’s boyfriend with whom Rose shared a past. Soon Rose is sleeping with him. Red flag: that is not a good friend. In fact, Rose is not a good person.

If I had to pin it down, I’d say this book is a study in toxic friendship colliding with obsession!

This novel comes out on June 23, you can pre-order it here.

 

 

Precious You by Helene Monk Takhar is another book about toxic females. I think every book I’ve picked up this week explores that same theme! Women can be vicious and cruel. This book takes place at a magazine called Leadership where Katherine Ross works. The magazine is under new leadership and the new boss is the aunt of Lily, Katherine’s intern. We have alternating chapters between Lily and Katherine which I liked. Katherine suffers from depression which is compounded by the arrival of Lily who is bright and smart and young.

Its a power struggled between the veteran editor and the “snowflake” and they are both quite extreme. Lily was more of a villain, drawing Katherine close and listening to her secrets for her own twisted satisfaction. Neither woman was particularly likable to me but I felt sorry for Katherine.

Synopsis:

Trusting you was my first mistake. To Katherine, twenty-four-year-old Lily Lunt is a typical “snowflake.” It seems like the privileged, politically correct millennial will do whatever she can to make it big as a writer, including leveraging her family’s connections. To Lily, Katherine Ross, a career woman in her early forties, is a holdover from another era: clueless, old-fashioned, and perfectly happy to build her success on the backs of her unpaid interns.

When Lily is hired as the new intern at the magazine where Katherine is editor in chief, her arrival threatens the very foundation of the self-serving little world that Katherine has built. She finds herself obsessively drawn to Lily, who seems to be a cruel reminder of the beauty and potential she once had—things Lily uses against Katherine as she slowly begins to undermine her, sabotaging her work and turning the magazine’s new publisher against her. Is Katherine being paranoid? Or is Lily seeking to systematically destroy her life? As Katherine tries to fight back, a toxic generational divide turns explosive and long-buried secrets are exposed—with deadly consequences for both. . . .

This book is out right now, you can order it here and start reading!