Book Spotlights: The She Reads ‘Books of Winter’ Selections

On Monday, the gals at She Reads announced the four ‘Books of Winter’ selections. I’m very excited about these picks – 2 I’ve already read/listened to, I’m currently listening to the third and will be picking up the fourth one very shortly. Be sure to visit the She Reads website – they have a great giveaway going on. Five lucky readers will win all four novels!!! (Giveaway is open until the end of January.)

So without further ado…here are the Books of Winter:

Title: The Good Girl   

Author: Mary Kubica    

Published: July 2014, Harlequin MIRA 

“I’ve been following
her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where
she has her dry cleaning done, where she works. I don’t know the color
of her eyes or what they look like when she’s scared. But I will.”

Born
to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia
Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One
night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But
when he doesn’t show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger.
With his smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like
a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be
the worst mistake of Mia’s life.

Colin’s job was to abduct Mia
as part of a wild extortion plot and deliver her to his employers. But
the plan takes an unexpected turn when Colin suddenly decides to hide
Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota, evading the police and his
deadly superiors. Mia’s mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will
stop at nothing to find them, but no one could have predicted the
emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family’s world to
shatter.

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller,
The Good Girl is a compulsive debut that reveals how even in the
perfect family, nothing is as it seems….

Title: The Dress Shop of Dreams   

Author: Menna van Praag      

Published: December 2014, Ballantine Books  

  

For fans of Alice Hoffman, Sarah Addison Allen, and Adriana Trigiani, The Dress Shop of Dreams is a captivating novel of enduring hopes, second chances, and the life-changing magic of true love.

Since
her parents’ mysterious deaths many years ago, scientist Cora Sparks
has spent her days in the safety of her university lab or at her
grandmother Etta’s dress shop. Tucked away on a winding Cambridge
street, Etta’s charming tiny store appears quite ordinary to passersby,
but the colorfully vibrant racks of beaded silks, delicate laces, and
jewel-toned velvets hold bewitching secrets: With just a few stitches
from Etta’s needle, these gorgeous gowns have the power to free a
woman’s deepest desires.

Etta’s dearest wish is to work her magic
on her granddaughter. Cora’s studious, unromantic eye has overlooked
Walt, the shy bookseller who has been in love with her forever.
Determined not to allow Cora to miss her chance at happiness, Etta sews a
tiny stitch into Walt’s collar, hoping to give him the courage to
confess his feelings to Cora. But magic spells—like true love—can go
awry. After Walt is spurred into action, Etta realizes she’s set in
motion a series of astonishing events that will transform Cora’s life in
extraordinary and unexpected ways.

Title: The Magician’s Lie    

Author: Greer MacAllister          

Published:  January 2015, Sourcebooks Landmark 

Water for Elephants
meets The Night Circus in The Magician’s Lie, a debut novel in which the
country’s most notorious female illusionist stands accused of her
husband’s murder –and she has only one night to convince a small-town
policeman of her innocence.

The Amazing Arden is the most famous
female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of
sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young
policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her
trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an
all-too-real murder? When Arden’s husband is found lifeless beneath the
stage later that night, the answer seems clear.

But when Virgil
happens upon the fleeing magician and takes her into custody, she has a
very different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far
from powerless—and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is
spellbinding. Over the course of one eerie night, Virgil must decide
whether to turn Arden in or set her free… and it will take all he has to
see through the smoke and mirrors.

Title: Mercy Snow 

Author: Tiffany Baker      

Published: January 2015 (Paperback), Grand Central Publishing   

“Strength and
quiet beauty mark Baker’s writing . . . Mercy Snow provides an authentic
universe of damaged souls and a fantastical heroine.”–Anita Shreve, Washington Post

In
the tiny town of Titan Falls, New Hampshire, the paper mill dictates a
quiet, steady rhythm of life. But one day a tragic bus accident sets two
families on a course toward destruction, irrevocably altering the lives
of everyone in their wake.

June McAllister is the wife of the
local mill owner and undisputed first lady in town. But the Snow family,
a group of itinerant ne’er-do-wells who live on a decrepit and cursed
property, have brought her–and the town–nothing but grief.

June
will do anything to cover up a dark secret she discovers after the
crash, one that threatens to upend her picture-perfect life, even if it
means driving the Snow family out of town. But she has never gone up
against a force as fierce as the young Mercy Snow. Mercy is determined
to protect her rebellious brother, whom the town blames for the
accident, despite his innocence. And she has a secret of her own. When
an old skeleton is discovered not far from the crash, it beckons Mercy
to solve a mystery buried deep within the town’s past.

I’ll be reviewing each of these books over the course of the next month or so. Be sure to check out the She Reads website for more reviews, guest posts, author interviews and more. And if you’re on Twitter, be sure to follow @SheReadsBookCLB  and the hashtag #SRBlog for author twitter chats.

Don’t forget, if you want a chance to win all four of these books, be sure to enter the giveaway – it’s open all month long! (Ends 1/31/15)