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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Review: I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (print/audio)

Publisher: Philomel Books / Penguin Random House Audio Published: February 1, 2022 Source: Print – Hardcopy via Publisher / Audio via library   Summary: A gut-wrenching, startling window into communist Romania and the citizen spy network that devastated a nation, from the number one New York Times best-selling, award-winning author of Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray. Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer,…

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Short & Sweet Review: Nemesis by Jo Nesbo

Publisher: Vintage Published: 2008 (first published 2002) Source: Personal copy   Summary: How do you catch a killer when you’re the number one suspect? A man is caught on CCTV, shooting dead a cashier at a bank. Detective Harry Hole begins his investigation, but after dinner with an old flame wakes up with no memory of the past 12 hours. Then the girl is found dead in mysterious circumstances and…

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Review: One Little Word by Audra McElyea

Publisher: Red Adept Publishing Published: February 22, 2022 Source: E-copy via Author   Summary: Allegra Hudson was murdered. An anonymous “source” drops the note into recently widowed Madeleine Barton’s lap exactly when she needs it most. As a new single mother, she is struggling to make ends meet as a freelance reporter, and covering the mysterious death of local bestselling author Allegra Hudson could be the career-launching story of her…

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Review: Unmissing by Minka Kent (audio)

Publisher: Brilliance Audio Published: February 15, 2022 Source: ALC via Brilliance Audio   Summary: A return from the past knocks a family dangerously off-balance in a novel of spiraling suspense by Washington Post and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Minka Kent. Merritt Coletto and her husband, Luca, have the life they dreamed of: a coastal home, a promising future, and a growing family. That dream ends with a late-night knock on the door. Weak,…

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Review: Enough Already by Valerie Bertinelli (audio)

Publisher: Mariner Books / Harper Audio Published: January 18, 2022 Source: Print – Hardcopy via Bibliolifestyle / Audio via Library   Summary: Beloved actress and New York Times best-selling author Valerie Bertinelli returns with a heartfelt look at turning sixty, the futility of finding happiness in numbers on a scale, learning to love herself the way she is today, and tips for a healthier outlook on life. Valerie Bertinelli shares an inspiring…

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Review: Hotel Portofino by J.P. O’Connell (audio)

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Published: January 18, 2022 Source: Netgalley   Summary: For fans of Downton Abbey and The Crown…welcome to Hotel Portofino, where romance, revelry, and intrigue await. A heady historical drama about a British family who opens an upper-class hotel on the magical Italian Riviera during the Roaring Twenties. Hotel Portofino has been open for only a few weeks, but already the problems are mounting for its owner Bella Ainsworth. Her high-class guests…

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Review: Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor (audio)

Publisher: Harper Perennial / Harper Audio Published: February 1, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Harper Perennial / Audio – ALC via Harper Audio   Summary: USA Today best-selling author Jillian Cantor reimagines and expands on the literary classic The Great Gatsby in this atmospheric historical novel with echoes of Big Little Lies, told in three women’s alternating voices. On a sultry August day in 1922, Jay Gatsby is shot dead in his…

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Review: Last Seen Alive by Joanna Schaffhausen

Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: January 25, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   Summary: The fifth book in Joanna Schaffhausen’s heartpounding Ellery Hathaway mystery series. Boston detective Ellery Hathaway met FBI agent Reed Markham when he pried open a serial killer’s closet to rescue her. Years on, their relationship remains defined by that moment and by Francis Coben’s horrific crimes. To free herself from Coben’s legacy, Ellery had to walk away…

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Review: Arsenic And Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (audio)

Publisher: Penguin Audio Published: May 4, 2021 Source: Library   Summary: The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes – one that might just be killer…. When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to…

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Review: The End of Getting Lost by Robin Kirman (audio)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: February 15, 2022 Source: Print – ARC E-copy via Netgalley / ALC via Simon & Schuster Audio   Summary: A young woman and her husband travel around Europe to celebrate their first year of marriage – a year that the woman has no memory of – in this searing novel of intimacy and deceit. The year is 1996 – a…

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Book Spotlight & Author Q&A: The Road We Took by Cathy A. Lewis

Publisher: Cathy Lewis Published: February 15, 2022 Source: BooksFowardPR   Summary: In 1933, before World War II, and the Holocaust, the world was unaware of Hitler’s plans to exterminate millions. Author Cathy A. Lewis discovered a tattered leather suitcase containing her deceased father’s journal documenting his six-week trek through Europe in 1933 while on his way to the 4th Boy Scout World Jamboree. Inspired by her father’s historical recount, The…

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