Blog Tour & Excerpt: The Wrong Victim by Allison Brennan

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Wrong Victim by Allison Brennan – I have an excerpt for you to read thanks to MIRA.   Publisher: MIRA Published: April 26, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   SUMMARY: A bomb explodes on a sunset charter cruise out of Friday Harbor at the height of tourist season and kills everyone on board. Now this fishing and boating…

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Review: The First Kennedys by Neal Thompson

Publisher: Mariner Books Published: February 22, 2022 Source: Hardcover via Publisher   Summary: Based on genealogical breakthroughs and previously unreleased records, this is the first book to explore the inspiring story of the poor Irish refugee couple who escaped famine, created a life together in a city hostile to Irish, immigrants, and Catholics, and launched the Kennedy dynasty in America. Their Irish ancestry was a hallmark of the Kennedys’ initial…

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Review: Everything Must Go by Camille Pagan (audio)

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing / Brilliance Audio Published: April 26, 2022 Source: Print – Finished copy via KCCPR/SuzyApprovedBookTours / Audio – ALC via Brilliance Audio   Summary: A warm, wry novel about secrets, second chances, and the unbreakable bonds between mothers, daughters, and sisters by the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of Life and Other Near-Death Experiences. Laine Francis believes there’s a place for everything—and New York, where her family lives,…

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Review: Unmasked by Paul Holes

Publisher: Celadon Books Published: April 26, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher   Summary: From the detective who found The Golden State Killer, a memoir of investigating America’s toughest cold cases and the rewards–and toll–of a life solving crime. I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to…

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Review: Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay

Publisher: William Morrow Published: May 17, 2022 Source: ARC E-copy via Netgalley   Summary: From the New York Times bestselling author of Find You First and Elevator Pitch comes a gripping psychological thriller about a formerly missing woman who has suddenly returned under mysterious circumstances. One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most everyone assumed Andy had got away with murder–it’s always the husband, isn’t it?–but…

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Review: Little Creeping Things by Chelsea Ichaso

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire: Published: June 2, 2020 Source: Hardcover via Publisher   Summary: When she was a child, Cassidy Pratt accidentally started a fire that killed her neighbor. At least, that’s what she’s been told. She can’t remember anything from that day, and her town’s bullies, particularly the cruel and beautiful Melody Davenport, have never let her live it down. But then Melody goes missing, and Cassidy thinks she may…

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Review: Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr (audio)

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks / Harper Audio Published: March 1, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Publisher / Audio – ALC via Publisher   Summary: From the author of the award-winning Fugitive Colors and The Unbreakables, a gripping tale of a young, ambitious journalist embroiled in an international art scandal centered around a Nazi-looted masterpiece – forcing the ultimate showdown between passion and possession, lovers and liars, history and truth. After talking her way into a job with…

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Short & Sweet Review: The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo

  Publisher: Vintage Published: April 6, 2016 (first published 2003) Source: Personal copy   SUMMARY: A young woman is murdered in her Oslo flat. One finger has been severed from her left hand, and behind her eyelid is secreted a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star – a pentagram, the devil’s star. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially…

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Review: Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough

Publisher: William Morrow Published: April 12, 2022 Source: Print copy via Publisher   Summary: IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT, MADNESS LIES . . . Emma can’t sleep. CHECK THE WINDOWS. It’s been like this since her big 4-0 started getting closer. LOCK THE DOORS. Her mother stopped sleeping just before her own fortieth birthday. She went mad and did the unthinkable because of it. LOOK IN ON THE CHILDREN. Is…

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Review: The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn (print/audio)

Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio Published: March 29, 2022 Source: Print – Hardcover via William Morrow / Audio – ALC via Harper Audio   Summary: The New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story. In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish…

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Blog Tour & Excerpt: Summer at the Cape by RaeAnne Thayne

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for Summer at the Cape by RaeAnne Thayne – I have an excerpt for you to read thanks to HQN. Publisher: HQN Published: April 12, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   SUMMARY: From the beloved bestselling author of Season of Wonder and The Cliff House  comes a poignant and uplifting novel about forgiveness, family and all the complications—and joy — that come with it As the…

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Blog Tour & Review: Mrs. England by Stacey Halls (audio)

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for Mrs. England by Stacey Hall. Thank you MIRA for inviting me to participate.   Publisher: MIRA / Harper Audio Published: April 12, 2022 Source: Print – Paperback via HTP Books / Audio – ALC via Harper Audio   SUMMARY: Simmering with slow-burning menace,  Mrs. England  is a portrait of an Edwardian marriage, an enthralling tale of men and…

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Review: Young Rich Widows by Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan & Vanessa Lillie (audio)

Publisher: Audible Originals Published: April 14, 2022 Source: ALC via Authors   Summary: When the four partners of a prominent law firm are killed in a mysterious plane crash, their widows must come together to uncover the truth in this explosive, edge-of-your-seat novel. It’s 1985 in Providence, Rhode Island, and the four partners of a prominent, mafia-affiliated law firm have been killed in a private jet that went down outside…

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Review: The Caretakers by Amanda Bestor-Siegal (audio)

Publisher: Harper Audio Published: April 12, 2022 Source: Netgalley   Summary: Set in a wealthy Parisian suburb, an emotionally riveting debut told from the point of view of six women, and centered around a group of au pairs, one of whom is arrested after a sudden and suspicious tragedy strikes her host family—a dramatic exploration of identity, class, and caregiving from a profoundly talented new writer. Paris, 2015. A crowd…

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Blog Tour & Review: A Family Affair by Robyn Carr (audio)

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for A Family Affair  by Robyn Carr. Thank you MIRA for inviting me to participate.   Publisher: MIRA / Harper Audio Published: April 5, 2022 Source: Print: Netgalley via HTP Books / Audio: ALC via Harper Audio   SUMMARY: Life’s biggest dilemmas can provide its sweetest rewards Anna McNichol knows how to take charge. Raised by a single…

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Blog Tour & Review: Fool Me Once by Ashley Winstead

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for Fool Me Once  by Ashley Winstead. Thank you Graydon House for inviting me to participate.   Publisher: Graydon House Published: April 5, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   SUMMARY: In this fierce and funny battle of the exes, Ashley Winstead’s FOOL ME ONCE explores the chaos of wanting what you already had. Lee Stone is a twenty-first-century woman: she kicks…

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Short & Sweet Review: 21st Birthday by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Published: May 3, 2021 Source: Personal copy   Summary: Detective Lindsay Boxer vows to protect a young woman from a serial killer long enough to see her twenty-first birthday. When young wife and mother Tara Burke goes missing with her baby girl, all eyes are on her husband, Lucas. He paints her not as a missing person but a wayward wife—until a gruesome piece of…

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Blog Tour & Excerpt: Summer on the Island by Brenda Novak

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for Summer on the Island by Brenda Novak – I have an excerpt for you to read thanks to MIRA.   Publisher: MIRA Published: April 5, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   SUMMARY: A summer of healing, friendship, love…and a secret that could change everything. After the death of her US senator father, Marlow Madsen travels to the small…

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Review: Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones (audio)

Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: April 5, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Avid Reader Press / Audio – ALC via Simon & Schuster Audio   Summary: From Chloé Cooper Jones—Pulitzer Prize finalist, philosophy professor, Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant recipient—a groundbreaking memoir about disability, motherhood, and a journey to far-flung places in search of a new way of seeing and being seen. “I am…

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Review: Caul Baby by Morgan Jerkins

Publisher: Harper Published: April 6, 2021 Source: Personal copy   Summary: New York Times bestselling author Morgan Jerkins makes her fiction debut with this electrifying novel, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jacqueline Woodson, that brings to life one powerful and enigmatic family in a tale rife with secrets, betrayal, intrigue, and magic. Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This…

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Most Anticipated Releases: April 2022

  Happy April! Here we are with another batch of anticipated reads…and once again, I had a hard time narrowing this list down to just 5 books…there are many new books coming out this month. With that being said, here are the 5 books I am most excited for this month. Some are brand new-to-me authors and some are beloved favorite authors that I get giddy with each new release…

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Review: Moment in Time by Suzanne Redfearn (audio)

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing / Brilliance Audio Published: March 8, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Author / Audio – ALC via Brilliance Audio   Summary: From the bestselling author of In an Instant comes a heartrending story about the power of friendship during the most challenging moments in life. It’s been eight years since a tragic accident changed Mo Kaminski’s and Chloe Miller’s lives forever. Now in their midtwenties, they’re…

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Blog Tour & Excerpt: Crimson Summer by Heather Graham

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for Crimson Summer by Heather Graham – I have an excerpt for you to read thanks to MIRA.   Publisher: MIRA Published: April 5, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   SUMMARY: From New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham, suspense following agents from the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement as they investigate a series of murders linked to…

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Review: Killer View by Roy Johansen (audio)

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing / Hachette Audio Published: March 8, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Grand Central / Audio – ALC via Hachette Audio   Summary: New York Times best-selling author Roy Johansen delivers a thrill-a-minute listen featuring a fearless heroine for hire. An army vet and former bodyguard for the rich and famous, Jessie Mercado has faced all kinds of danger and always emerged victorious. But one thing…

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Month in Review: March 2022

  March was a crazy month…so many great books came out and I was busy with lots of book club reads and buddy reads. I am really enjoying all the discussions that come from these group reads and while I would probably have read most of these books, some were ones I might not have picked up. And as you can see, this month I definitely gravitated towards audiobooks…I love…

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Review: The Detective’s Daughter by Erica Spindler

Publisher: Double Shot Press Published: March 29, 2022 Source: ARC E-galley via author   Summary: New Orleans Detective Quinn Conners is haunted by her father’s whiskey-soaked, last words – that he solved the Hudson murder and kidnapping. It wasn’t the first time he’d made that drunken claim, and she didn’t believe him. Twenty-four hours later she found him dead by his own hand. Quinn blames the investigation for his downfall,…

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Review: Home or Away by Kathleen West

Publisher: Berkley Publisher Published: March 29, 2022 Source: ARC E-copy via Netgalley / Hardcopy via Kathleen Carter Communications     Summary: Two friends, one Olympic dream, and the choice that stood in the way. Once Leigh and Susy were close friends and teammates bound for Olympic hockey gold, but when Leigh’s sure-fire plan to make the final roster backfired, she left everything behind to start over, including the one person…

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Blog Tour & Review: The Lying Club by Annie Ward

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Lying Club by Annie Ward. Thank you Park Row Books for inviting me to participate.   Publisher: Park Row Books Published: March 22, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   Summary: A tangled web of lies draws together three women in this explosive thriller of revenge, murder and shocking secrets At an elite private school nestled in…

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Review: Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Published: March 15, 2022 Source: Personal copy   Summary: A “beautifully rendered” novel about war, migration, and the power of telling our stories, Peach Blossom Spring follows three generations of a Chinese family on their search for a place to call home (Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author). “Within every misfortune there is a blessing and within every blessing, the seeds of misfortune, and so it goes, until the end…

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Blog Tour & Review: The Summer Getaway by Susan Mallery (audio)

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Summer Getaway by Susan Mallery. Thank you HQN Books for inviting me to participate.   Publisher: HQN Books / Harper Audio Published: March 15, 2022 Source: Print – ARC E-copy via Netgalley / Audio – ALC via Harper Audio   Summary:  One woman discovers the beauty in chaos in this poignant and heartwarming story about…

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Review: Little Bones by Patricia Gibney

Publisher: Bookouture Published: September 22, 2021 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   Summary: She lifted up her granddaughter from the cot, clutched her to her chest and, without looking at her beautiful daughter lying dead on the floor of her bedroom, ran from the house. Only when she was outside did she let a wail escape her lips, frightening the baby who joined in her screams. When Isabel Gallagher is found…

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Review: The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

Publisher: Riverhead Books Published: July 6, 2021 Source: Personal copy   Summary: It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace” — the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex…

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Review: Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner (audio)

Publisher: Gallery Books / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: January 25, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Gallery Books / Audio – ALC via Simon & Schuster Audio   Summary: “A twisty, fast-paced” (The Sunday Times, London) debut thriller, as electrifying as the number-one New York Times best seller The Girl on the Train, about impending motherhood, unreliable friendship, and the high price of keeping secrets. In this “gloriously tangled game of…

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Review: Three Sisters by Heather Morris (audio)

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio Published: October 5, 2021 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Publisher / Audio via library   Summary: From Heather Morris, the New York Times best-selling author of the multimillion-copy best seller The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey: a story of family, courage, and resilience, inspired by a true story. Against all odds, three Slovakian sisters have survived years of imprisonment in the most notorious death camp in…

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Blog Tour & Review: A Life for a Life by Carol Wyer (Print/Audio)

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for A Life for a Life by Carol Wyer. Thank you #ZooloosBookTours for inviting me to participate. Publisher: Thomas & Mercer / Brilliance Audio Published: March 15, 2022 Source: E-galley via Publicist / Audio via Brilliance Audio   Summary: Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer – except an unpredictable detective. When a young man is found…

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Review: Nine Lives by Peter Swanson

Publisher: William Morrow Published: March 15, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   Summary: The story of nine strangers who receive a cryptic list with their names on it – and then begin to die in highly unusual circumstances. Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know…

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Review: Black Ice by Carin Gerhardsen

Publisher: Scarlet Suspense Published: June 29, 2021 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher   Summary: January in Gotland. The days are short, the air is cold, and all the roads are covered in snow. On a deserted, icy backroad, these wintery conditions will soon bring together a group of strangers with a force devastating enough to change their lives forever when, in the midst of a brief period, a deadly accident…

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Review: Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala (audio)

Publisher: Berkley Books / Penguin Audio Published: February 8, 2022 Source: Print – Paperback via GetRedPR / Audio via Library   Summary: Death at a beauty pageant turns Tita Rosie’s Kitchen upside down in the latest entry of this witty and humorous cozy-mystery series by Mia P. Manansala. Things are heating up for Lila Macapagal. Not in her love life, which she insists on keeping nonexistent despite the attention of two…

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Review: Dead Wind by Tessa Wegert

Publisher: Severn House Publishers Published: March 1, 2022 (e-book) Source: ARC E-copy via Suzy Approved Book Tours   Summary: Senior Investigator Shana Merchant must dredge up dark secrets and old grudges if she’s to solve the murder of a prominent local citizen in the Thousand Islands community she now calls home. The body is discovered on Wolfe Island, under the shadow of an enormous wind turbine. Senior Investigator Shana Merchant,…

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Review: The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen (audio)

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio Published: March 8, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via St. Martin’s Press / Audio – ALC via Libro.fm   Summary: The next electrifying novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author duo behind The Wife Between Us. Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all—until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and…

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Review: Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal (audio)

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books / Simon and Schuster Audio Published: February 1, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Atria / ALC via Simon and Schuster Audio   Summary: From the #1 internationally bestselling author of the “lush, evocative Gothic” (The New York Times Book Review) The Doll Factory comes an atmospheric and spectacular novel where one woman’s life is transformed by the arrival of a Victorian circus of wonders… Step up, step…

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Most Anticipated Releases: March 2022

  Happy March! Here we are with another batch of anticipated reads…and once again, I had a hard time narrowing this list down to just 5 books. But these are my top reads and while I’ve only read one so far, the others are at the top of my reading pile. With that being said, here are the 5 books I am most excited for this month. Some are brand…

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Review: Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton & James Patterson (audio)

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company Published: March 7, 2022 Source: Print – Personal copy / Audio – ALC via Hachette Audio   Summary: From America’s most beloved superstar and its greatest storyteller – a thriller about a young singer-songwriter on the rise and on the run, and determined to do whatever it takes to survive. Every song tells a story. She’s a star on the rise, singing about the hard…

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Review: The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

Publisher: William Morrow Published: March 15, 2022 Source: Publisher   Summary: What is the purpose of a map? Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field, and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway…

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Review: Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia (audio)

Publisher: Flatiron Books / Macmillan Audio Published: March 30, 2021 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Publisher / Audio via library   Summary: A sweeping, masterful debut about a daughter’s fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction. Daughter of Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, she is determined to…

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Review: Sanctuary: A Memoir by Emily Rapp Black (audio)

Publisher: Random House / Random House Audio Published: January 19, 2021 Source: Print – Personal Copy / Audio via library   Summary: From the New York Times best-selling author of The Still Point of the Turning World comes an incisive memoir about how she came to question and redefine the concept of resilience after the trauma of her first child’s death. “Congratulations on the resurrection of your life”, a colleague wrote to Emily Rapp…

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Blog Tour & Review: The Heights by Louise Candlish

Publisher: Atria Books Published: March 1, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher   Summary: The Heights is a tall, slender apartment building among warehouses in London. Its roof terrace is so discreet, you wouldn’t know it existed if you weren’t standing at the window of the flat directly opposite. But you are. And that’s when you see a man up there—a man you’d recognize anywhere. He may be older now, but it’s…

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Review: The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio Published: March 1, 2022 Source: Print – Hardcover via Kathleen Carter Communications / Audio: ALC via Netgalley   Summary: North Carolina, 1946. One woman. A discovery that could rewrite history. “A beautifully rendered portrait of a young woman finding her courage and her voice.”—Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maddie Sykes is a burgeoning seamstress who’s just arrived in Bright Leaf, North Carolina—the tobacco capital…

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Month in Review: February 2022

  How is it that January always seems to feel like it lasts forever yet February goes by in the blink of an eye? Somehow I still managed to read an awful lot of books, so I cannot complain! It was a good month for buddy reads and book club discussions. I seem to have joined a few more online book clubs this month and I have no regrets! Reading…

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Review: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie – Reread (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (first published 1937) / HarperAudio Published: Print – September 29, 2020 / Audio – July 3, 2012 Source: Print – Paperback via Publisher / Audio via Library   Summary: Following the success of Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh returns to direct and star in this adaptation of the classic Hercule Poirot mystery for the big screen, also starring Gal Gadot. Beloved detective Hercule Poirot embarks on a…

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