Always With a Book

k2reader March 12, 2022

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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k2reader March 10, 2022

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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k2reader March 9, 2022

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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k2reader March 9, 2022

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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k2reader March 8, 2022

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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k2reader March 7, 2022

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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k2reader March 6, 2022

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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k2reader March 4, 2022

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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k2reader March 4, 2022

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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k2reader March 3, 2022

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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k2reader March 2, 2022

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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k2reader March 1, 2022

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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k2reader February 28, 2022

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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k2reader February 27, 2022

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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k2reader February 26, 2022

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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k2reader February 25, 2022

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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k2reader February 25, 2022

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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k2reader February 24, 2022

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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k2reader February 23, 2022

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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k2reader February 21, 2022

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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k2reader February 21, 2022

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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k2reader February 18, 2022

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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k2reader February 15, 2022

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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k2reader February 14, 2022

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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k2reader February 13, 2022

Review: Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner (audio)

Publisher: ChristianAudio.com Published: April 16, 2015 Source: Library Summary: The author of A Fall of Marigolds journeys from the present day to World War II England, as two sisters are separated by the chaos of wartime. She stood at a crossroads, half-aware that her choice would send her down a path from which there could be no turning back. But instead of two choices, she saw only one—because it…

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k2reader February 13, 2022

Blog Tour & Excerpt: Beach Wedding by Michael Ledwidge

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for Beach Ledwidge by Michael Ledwidge – I have an excerpt for you to read thanks to Hanover Square Press. Publisher: Hanover Square Press Published: February 15, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher Summary: A high-society wedding party stirs up new evidence in an unsolved murder in this thrilling stand-alone from the New York Times bestselling coauthor of James…

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k2reader February 11, 2022

Review: A Train to Moscow by Elena Gorokhova

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing Published: March 1, 2022 Source: ARC E-copy via Netgalley Summary: In post–World War II Russia, a girl must reconcile a tragic past with her hope for the future in this powerful and poignant novel about family secrets, passion and loss, perseverance and ambition. In a small, provincial town behind the Iron Curtain, Sasha lives in a house full of secrets, one of which is…

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k2reader February 11, 2022

Blog Tour & Review: The Last Grand Duchess by Bryn Turnbull

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Last Grand Duchess by Bryn Turnbull. Thank you MIRA for inviting me to participate. Publisher: MIRA Published: February 8, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher Summary: This sweeping new novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Woman Before Wallis takes readers behind palace walls to see the end of Imperial Russia through the eyes of…

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k2reader February 10, 2022

Blog Tour & Review: Jane and the Year Without a Summer by Stephanie Barron

Publisher: Soho Crime Published: February 8, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via AustenProse PR Summary: May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach, constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of her latest manuscript–about a baronet’s daughter nursing a broken heart for a daring naval captain–cannot alleviate. Her apothecary recommends a trial of…

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k2reader February 9, 2022

Review: Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Published: January 25, 2022 Source: Hardcover via Publisher Summary: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie and The Only Woman in the Room. Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider―brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide…

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k2reader February 8, 2022

Review: Behind the Lie by Emilya Naymark

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books Published: February 8, 2022 Source: Hardcover via Booksforward PR Summary NYPD detective turned small town PI Laney Bird is in a fight to save lives–including her own–after a neighborhood block party turns deadly. A transplant to the upstate New York hamlet of Sylvan, all Laney wants is a peaceful life for herself and her son. But things rarely remain calm in Laney’s life–and when her…

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k2reader February 6, 2022

Most Anticipated Releases: February 2022

Happy February! Here we are with another batch of anticipated reads…and let me tell you, some months it’s really hard narrowing this list down to just 5 books! I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to read any just yet as January was filled with so many new releases, but these are the top priority and I should be getting to them soon. With that being said, here are the…

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k2reader February 6, 2022

Review: The Bait by C.W. Gortner & M.J. Rose

Publisher: Blue Box Press Published: August 10, 2021 Source: GetRedPR Summary: Revenge is a diamond best served cold. A year after THE STEAL, Ania Throne is determined to take back what the Leopard stole from her. Together with her lover and partner, Jerome, she stages a spectacular heist during the Venetian Carnival, to lure out the treacherous mastermind they unmasked. She’s willing to risk it all—until her revenge takes a…

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k2reader February 5, 2022

Blog Tour & Review: Woman Last Seen by Adele Parks

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for Woman Last Seen by Adele Parks. Thank you MIRA Books for inviting me to participate. Publisher: MIRA Books Published: February 1, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher Summary: HAPPY. MARRIED. MISSING. Leigh Fletcher: happily married stepmum to two gorgeous boys goes missing on Monday. Her husband Mark says he knows nothing of her whereabouts. She simply…

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k2reader February 4, 2022

Review: The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio Published: January 11, 2022 Source: Paperback via GetRedPR / Audio via Library Summary: Beloved New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis begins a new series–Sunrise Cove–set near beautiful Lake Tahoe, with a heartwarming story of found family and love. During the snowstorm of the century Levi Cutler is stranded on a ski lift with a beautiful stranger named Jane. After strong winds hurl the gondola…

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k2reader February 2, 2022

Blog Tour & Review: The Liz Taylor Ring by Brenda Janowitz

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Liz Taylor Ring by Brenda Janowitz. Thank you Graydon House for inviting me to participate. Publisher: Graydon House Published: February 1, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher Summary: Three siblings. A priceless family ring. One legendary love story. In 1978, Lizzie Morgan and Ritchie Schneider embark on a whirlwind romance on the bright beaches and glamorous…

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k2reader February 2, 2022

Blog Tour & Review: A Lullaby for Witches by Hester Fox

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for A Lullaby for Witches by Hester Fox. Thank you Graydon House for inviting me to participate. Publisher: Graydon House Published: February 1, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher Summary: Two women. A history of witchcraft. And a deep-rooted female power that sings across the centuries. Once there was a young woman from a well-to-do…

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k2reader February 1, 2022

Review: The Fashion Orphans by Randy Susan Meyers & M.J. Rose (audio)

Publisher: Blue Box Press / Brilliance Audio Published: February 1, 2022 Source: Print – Paperback via GetRedPR / Audio – ALC via Brilliance Audio Summary: Two estranged sisters find that forgiveness never goes out of style when they inherit their mother’s vintage jackets, purses… and pearls of wisdom Estranged half-sisters Gabrielle Winslow and Lulu Quattro have only two things in common: mounds of debt and coils of unresolved enmity…

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k2reader February 1, 2022

Month in Review: January 2022

Well, we made it through the first month of the new year! Reading-wise, there have been some amazing books published already this year and it looks like there are a whole lot more to come…which is good. I have a few reading goals this year that I’m hoping to stick with…we’ll see how that goes. #1: Continue to mix in current and old books – I have a rather…

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k2reader January 31, 2022

Review: The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont (audio)

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio Published: February 1, 2022 Source: Print – Netgalley via Publisher / Audio – ALC via Publisher Summary: Nina de Gramont’s The Christie Affair is a beguiling novel of star-crossed lovers, heartbreak, revenge, and murder—and a brilliant re-imagination of one of the most talked-about unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. Every story has its secrets. Every mystery has its motives. “A long time ago, in…

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k2reader January 30, 2022

Review: The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

Publisher: William Morrow Published: April 17, 2012 (first published August 22, 1924) Source: Library Summary: The Man in the Brown Suit is Agatha Christie at her best, as a young woman makes a dangerous decision to investigate a shocking “accidental” death she witnesses at a London tube station. Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes looking for her—and finds her immediately at Hyde Park…

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k2reader January 29, 2022

Review: Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter (audio)

Publisher: HarperTorch / HarperAudio Published: October 2002 (Originally published Sept 2001) / Audio – February 10, 20215 Source: Print – Mass Market Paperback via Publisher / Audio via library Summary: A small Georgia town erupts in panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. But it’s only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the…

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k2reader January 28, 2022

Review: The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Publisher: Celadon Books Published: May 31, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher Summary: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Latecomer is a layered and immersive literary novel about three siblings, desperate to escape one another, and the upending of their family by the late arrival of a fourth. The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents…

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k2reader January 27, 2022

Blog Tour & Review: The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf. Thank you Park Row Books for inviting me to participate. Publisher: Park Row Books Published: January 25, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher Summary: A woman receives an unexpected visitor during a deadly snowstorm in this chilling thriller from New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf She thought she was alone… True…

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k2reader January 27, 2022

Blog Tour & Review: The Appeal by Janice Hallett

Publisher: Atria Books Published: January 25, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher Summary: This murder mystery follows a community rallying around a sick child—but when escalating lies lead to a dead body, everyone is a suspect. The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals for an Arthur Miller play, when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Haywood and his wife Helen, the play’s…

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k2reader January 26, 2022

Review: We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal

Publisher: Harper Published: October 28, 2021 Source: Personal copy Summary: A missing girl, a hidden body, a decades-long cover-up, and old sins cast in new light: the classic procedural meets Scandinavian atmosphere in this rich, character-driven mystery, awarded Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, that heralds the American debut of a supremely skilled international writer. It’s been more than twenty years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to…

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k2reader January 25, 2022

Review: When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham

Publisher: Scribner Books Published: January 4, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher Summary: In this page-turning psychological thriller from an author who Stephen King called “an absolute master,” a young female police officer faces danger on all fronts—from a clever victim of abuse, her colleagues on the force, and even her own mobster father. Philomena McCarthy is a young, ambitious police office with the elite Metropolitan Police in London.…

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k2reader January 23, 2022

Review: The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain (audio)

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio Published: January 11, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via St. Martin’s Press / Audio via library Summary: A community’s past sins rise to the surface in New York Times bestselling author Diane Chamberlain’s The Last House on the Street when two women, a generation apart, find themselves bound by tragedy and an unsolved, decades-old mystery. 1965 Growing up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill,…

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k2reader January 23, 2022

Review: As the Wicked Watch by Tamron Hall

Publisher: William Morrow Published: October 26, 2021 Source: Netgalley via Publisher Summary: The first in a thrilling new series from Emmy Award–winning journalist Tamron Hall, in which a reporter unravels the disturbing mystery around the deaths of two black girls, the work of a serial killer terrorizing Chicago. When crime reporter Jordan Manning leaves her hometown in Texas to take a job at a television station in Chicago, she’s…

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k2reader January 21, 2022

Review: Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow/Harper Audio Published: January 25, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via William Morrow / Audio – ALC via Netgalley Summary: In the tradition of ‘Long Bright River’ and ‘The Mars Room’, a gripping and atmospheric work of literary suspense that deconstructs the story of a serial killer on death row, told primarily through the eyes of the women in his life – from the best-selling author of ‘Girl in Snow’.…

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