Review: The Girl from the Savoy by Hazel Gaynor (audio)

Title:The Girl from the Savoy Author:Hazel Gaynor Narrator:Jennifer Jones, Lucy Rayner, Paul Fox Published:June 2016, Harper Audio / William Morrow Paperbacks Length:14 hours 20 minutes / 448 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Paperback via Publisher   Presenting a dazzling new historical novel … The Girl From The Savoy is as sparkling as champagne and as thrilling as the era itself. Sometimes life gives you cotton stockings. Sometimes it gives…

View Post

Review: Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel (audio)

Title:Crooked Little Lies Author:Barbara Taylor Sissel Narrator:Natalie Ross Published:December 2015, Brilliance Audio Length:12 hours 24 minutes Source:Publisher On a cool October morning, Lauren Wilder is shaken when she comes close to striking Bo Laughlin with her car as he’s walking along the road’s edge. A young man well known in their small town of Hardys Walk, Texas, Bo seems fine, even if Lauren’s intuition says otherwise. Since the accident two…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in June 10

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   As busy as I am right now with work, making the time for my walks has really helped keep me sane and I made sure to get in those walks last week…and I was at the gym at 4:30am!!! I think those Fitbit Challenges also help to push me a little bit, too –…

View Post

#SRC2016 Book Spotlight: Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford

Title:Everybody Rise Author:Stephanie Clifford Published:June 2016, St. Martin’s Griffin Format: Paperback, 400 pages It’s 2006 in the Manhattan of the young and glamorous. Money and class are colliding in a city that is about to go over a financial precipice and take much of the country with it. At 26, bright, funny and socially anxious Evelyn Beegan is determined to carve her own path in life and free herself from…

View Post

Book Spotlight & Author Q&A: Sunshine Beach by Wendy Wax Plus Giveaway!!! (Giveaway Closed)

Title:Sunshine Beach Author:Wendy Wax Series:Ten Beach Road, #4 Published:June 2016, Berkley Format:Paperback, 432 pages In this brand-new summer read by the USA Today bestselling author of The House on Mermaid Point, three women join forces to bring a historic seaside hotel back to life…   There’s nothing that a fresh coat of paint and a few glasses of wine can’t fix…   After losing their life savings in a Ponzi…

View Post

Book Spotlight: The Lake House by Kate Morton

Kate Morton’s latest book, The Lake House, is now out in paperback!!! I became a fan of Kate’s books when I read The Forgotten Garden, which I absolutely loved, and while I haven’t read this one, you can be sure that I will as soon as I get the chance. Title: The Lake House Author: Kate Morton Published: June 2016, Atria Books Format: Paperback, 512 pages From the New York…

View Post

Review: After Perfect: A Daughter’s Memoir by Christina McDowell

Title:After Perfect: A Daughter’s Memoir Author:Christina McDowell Narrator:Christina McDowell Published:June 2015, Audible Studios / Gallery Books Length:9 hours 55 minutes / 224 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Netgalley via Publicist In the tradition of New York Times bestsellers What Remains by Carole Radziwill and Oh the Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey, Christina McDowell’s unflinching memoir is a brutally honest, cautionary tale about one family’s destruction in the…

View Post

Review: Liar, Liar by M.J. Arlidge

Title:Liar, Liar Author:M.J. Arlidge Series:Helen Grace, #4 Published:June 2016, NAL Format:ARC E-copy, 432 pages Source:Netgalley Detective Helen Grace gets caught in an inferno of death and destruction in the red-hot new thriller from the author of Eeny Meeny, Pop Goes the Weasel, and The Doll’s House… Detective Helen Grace has never seen such destruction. Six fires in twenty-four hours. Two people dead. Several more injured. It’s as if someone wants…

View Post

Review: Find Her by Lisa Gardner (audio)

Title:Find Her Author:Lisa Garnder Series:Detective D.D. Warren, #8 Narrator:Kirsten Potter Published:February 2016, Brilliance Audio Length:12 hours, 16 minutes Source:Publisher Flora Dane is a victim. Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure. Flora Dane is a survivor. Miraculously alive after her ordeal, Flora has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in June 3

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About The month of June tends to be a busy month work-wise, so I really need to make a concerted effort to fit in my walks and yoga and/or whatever strength training I’ve decided to do for the day. It’s times like this that I’m really glad my gym opens at 4:30 am because that’s when I’ll…

View Post

#SRC2016 Book Spotlight: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Title:One True Loves Author:Taylor Jenkins Reid Published:June 2016, Washington Square Press Format:Paperback, 352 pages From the author of Maybe in Another Life—named a People Magazine pick and a “Best Book of the Summer” by Glamour and USA TODAY—comes a breathtaking new love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life. In…

View Post

Review: The Obsession by Nora Roberts (audio)

Title:The Obsession Author:Nora Roberts Narrator:Shannon McManus Published:April 2016, Brilliance Audio Length:14 hours 19 minutes Source:Publisher The riveting new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Liar. Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father’s crimes and made him infamous. Now a successful photographer…

View Post

Month in Review: May 2016

Here are my reading stats for May! Books read: 12 Books I read:  Lost Among the Living — Simone St. James (audio book) No One Knows — J.T. Ellison The Winter Girl — Matt Marinovich (audio book) The Other Girl — Lauren Willig (audio book) Don’t You Cry — Mary Kubica Fool Me Once — Harlan Coben (audio book) The Girl in the Ice — Robert Bryndza (audio book) Saving…

View Post

Review: The Winter Girl by Matt Marinovich (audio)

Title: The Winter Girl Author:Matt Marinovich Narrator:Quincy Dunn-Baker Published:January 2016, Recorded Books Length:6 hours 26 minutes Source:Publisher A scathing and exhilarating thriller that begins with a husband’s obsession with the seemingly vacant house next door. It’s wintertime in the Hamptons, where Scott and his wife, Elise, have come to be with her terminally ill father, Victor, to await the inevitable. As weeks turn to months, their daily routine—Elise at the…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in May 27

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About I seem to have gotten off track with my yoga and need to fix that…while I haven’t actually made it to classes in a while, I had been doing some yoga at home and was feeling good about it – and could actually start to feel the difference. I found some really great yoga flows on…

View Post

Book Spotlight: Appetite by Sheila Grinell

Title:Appetite Author:Sheila Grinell Published:May 2017, She Writes Press Format:Paperback, 328 pages When Jenn Adler returns from a year in India, she has a surprise for her parents: a young guru from Bangalore whom she intends to marry. Her father, Paul, is wary of this beggar Jenn has brought home who, he suspects, is conning his much-loved daughter while her mother, Maggie, is frightened that this alien stranger will steal away…

View Post

Review: No One Knows by J.T. Ellison

Title: No One Knows Author:J.T. Ellison Published:March 2016, Gallery Books Format:ARC E-copy, 384 pages Source:Netgalley via Publisher In an obsessive mystery as thrilling as The Girl on the Train and The Husband’s Secret, New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison will make you question every twist in her page-turning novel—and wonder which of her vividly drawn characters you should trust. The day Aubrey Hamilton’s husband is declared dead by the…

View Post

Review: Sweet Forgiveness by Lori Nelson Spielman (audio)

Title:Sweet Forgiveness Author:Lori Nelson Spielman Narrator:Tavia Gilbert Published:June 2015, Blackstone Audio / Plume Length:9 hours 50 minutes / 336 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Netgalley #1 international bestselling author Lori Nelson Spielman follows The Life List with Sweet Forgiveness, in which a woman’s receipt of two “forgiveness stones” sends her searching for atonement The Forgiveness Stones craze is sweeping the nation—instantly recognizable pouches of stones that come with a…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in May 20

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   This week was a little calmer than last week…that’s for sure! I ended up spending the day on Friday at the elementary school I used to teach at many years ago – they were having their “Mini-Marathon Day” where all the kids do a “fun” run, the distance dependent on the age of the kids.…

View Post

Book Spotlight: The Assistants by Camille Perri

Title: The Assistants Author:Camille Perri Published:May 2016, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Format:Hardcover, 288 pages A wry and astute debut about a young Manhattanite whose embezzlement scam turns her into an unlikely advocate for the leagues of overeducated and underpaid assistants across the city. Tina Fontana is the hapless but brazen thirty-year-old executive assistant to Robert Barlow, the all-powerful and commanding CEO of Titan Corp., a multinational media conglomerate. She’s excellent at…

View Post

Book Spotlight & Guest Post: A Perfumer’s Secret by Adria J. Cimino

Title: A Perfumer’s Secret  Author:Adria J. Cimino Published:May 2016, Velvet Morning Press Format:Paperback, 258 pages The quest for a stolen perfume formula awakens passion, rivalry and family secrets in the fragrant flower fields of the South of France…  Perfumer Zoe Flore travels to Grasse, perfume capital of the world, to collect a formula: her inheritance from the family she never knew existed. The scent matches the one worn by her…

View Post

Review: Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica

Title:Don’t You Cry Author:Mary Kubica Published:May 2016, MIRA Format:Hardcover, 320 pages Source:Publisher New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl, Mary Kubica returns with an electrifying and addictive tale of deceit and obsession  In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn Collins to…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in May 13

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   So, this was a pretty crazy week, work-wise. We had our first-ever fundraiser, and while it was a success – YAY!!! – it was crazy right up til the start of the event with all the running around and last minute to-do’s that needed doing. But, as I said, the event was a success and…

View Post

Book Spotlight: The House of Bradbury by Nicole Meier

Title:The House of Bradbury Author:Nicole Meier Published:May 2016, Sparkpress Format:Paperback, 280 pages Mia Gladwell s life is going nowhere. The media has skewered her debut novel, her fiance Carson, a successful Hollywood producer, has jumped ship, and now she s living in her sister s carriage house unattached, unemployed, and uninspired. Then she learns that the Los Angeles estate of iconic author Ray Bradbury is up for sale, and she…

View Post

Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica (Giveaway closed)

Next week, Don’t You Cry, Mary Kubica’s latest book comes out and I am so excited…I’m reading it now and it’s so good…twisty,crazy good! My review will be posted the date the book releases, May 17th. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Mary twice and I just adore her…she’s delightful and I have absolutely loved her previous books – The Good Girl and Pretty Baby. In anticipation of release day,…

View Post

Review: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Title:I Let You Go Author:Clare Mackintosh Published:May 2016, Berkley Format:ARC E-copy, 384 pages Source:Netgalley via Publisher In a split second, Jenna Gray’s world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in May 6

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   It was a pretty good week. I ended up working from home because I had to keep an eye on my dog after her surgery – she’s ok, but has to wear a cone for 2 weeks. Boy is that getting old! But, we’ve been taking lots of walks – long walks just around…

View Post

Book Spotlight: First Comes Love by Emily Giffin

Title:First Comes Love Author:Emily Giffin Published:June 2016, Ballantine Books Format:Hardcover, 400 pages In this dazzling new novel, Emily Giffin, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed, Where We Belong, and The One & Only introduces a pair of sisters who find themselves at a crossroads. Growing up, Josie and Meredith Garland shared a loving, if sometimes contentious relationship. Josie was impulsive, spirited, and outgoing; Meredith hardworking, thoughtful,…

View Post

Review: Lost Among the Living by Simone St. James (audio)

Title:Lost Among the Living Author:Simone St. James Narrator:Justine Eyre Published:April 2016, Blackstone Audio / NAL Length:10 hours 23 minutes / 336 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Netgalley   England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex’s wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family’s estate in the Sussex countryside.…

View Post

Review: Best of My Love by Susan Mallery (audio)

Title:Best of My Love Author:Susan Mallery Series:Fool‘s Gold, #20 Narrator:Tanya Eby Published:April 2016, Brilliance Audio Length:8 hours 28 minutes Source:Publisher   An irresistible new love story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fool’s Gold series, set in a town Library Journal calls “so appealing, readers will want to start scoping out real estate.”  To overcome her painful past, baker Shelby Gilmore goes on the hunt for…

View Post

Month in Review: April 2016

Here are my reading stats for April! Books read: 14 Books I read:  Career of Evil — Robert Galbraith (audio book) Lies and Other Acts of Love — Kristy Woodson Harvey What We Find — Robyn Carr (e-book) Crooked Little Lies — Barbara Taylor Sissel (audio book) You — Caroline Kepnes (audio book) Sister Dear — Laura McNeill (e-book) Ana of California — Andi Teran (audio book) Sweet Forgiveness —…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in April 29

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   So, not only did I get in 1 10K in for April…I did 5 this past week…I just decided that I would do one every day and you know what, I felt great doing them, plus I was able to finish 2 audio books this week because of the extended walking time!!!  On the food…

View Post

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

A few weeks ago, the gals at She Reads announced the three ‘Books of Spring’ selections. I’m sorry for my delay in posting this, life has just gotten in the way, but better late than never, right? So without further ado…here are the Books of Spring: Title:No One Knows Author:J.T. Ellison Published:March 2016, Gallery Books In an obsessive mystery as thrilling as The Girl on the Train and The Husband’s…

View Post

Short & Sweet Review: Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (audio)

Title:Career of Evil Author:Robert Galbraith Series:Cormoran Strike, #3 Narrator:Robert Glenister Published:October 2015, Hachette Audio Length:17 hours 58 minutes Source:Personal copy via Audible Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war. When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg. Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised…

View Post

Book Spotlight: The Goodbye Year by Kaira Rouda

Title:The Goodbye Year Author:Kaira Rouda Published:May 2016, Sparkpress Format:Paperback, 312 pages Melanie, a perfectionist mom who views the approaching end of parenting as a type of death, can t believe she has only one more year to live vicariously through her slacker senior son, Dane. Gorgeous mom Sarah has just begun to realize that her only daughter, Ashley, has been serving as a stand-in for her traveling husband, and the…

View Post

Short & Sweet Review: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (audio)

Title:The Silkworm Author:Robert Galbraith Series:Cormoran Strike, #2 Narrator:Robert Glenister Published:June 2014, Hachette Audio Length:17 hours 22 minutes Source:Personal copy via Audible Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo’s Calling. When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for…

View Post

Book Spotlight: Meternity by Meghann Foye

Title:Meternity Author:Meghann Foye Published:April 2016, MIRA Format:Paperback, 368 pages Not quite knocked up…  Like everyone in New York media, editor Liz Buckley runs on cupcakes, caffeine and cocktails. But at thirty-one, she’s plateaued at Paddy Cakes, a glossy baby magazine that flogs thousand-dollar strollers to entitled, hypercompetitive spawn-havers. Liz has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack for coworkers with kids, and she’s tired of…

View Post

Blog Tour & Review: Rare Objects by Kathleen Tessaro

Title:Rare Objects Author:Kathleen Tessaro Published:April 2016; Harper Format:ARC Paperback; 400 pages Source:Publisher via TLC Book Tours Maeve Fanning is a first generation Irish immigrant, born and raised among the poor, industrious Italian families of Boston’s North End by her widowed mother. Clever, capable, and as headstrong as her red hair suggests, she’s determined to better herself despite the overwhelming hardships of the Great Depression. However, Maeve also has a dangerous…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in April 22

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   I got 2 5K’s in this week – one at the gym and one outside…now if I can only get in a 10K this month, I’ll be happy. I also started doing yoga at home…I found some yoga flows that I’ve been trying to do a few times each morning, depending on how much time…

View Post

Review: Sister Dear by Laura McNeill

Title:Sister Dear Author:Laura McNeill Published:April 2016, Thomas Nelson Format:Paperback, 400 pages Source:Author / Netgalley All Allie Marshall wants is a fresh start.  But when dark secrets refuse to stay buried, will her chance at a new life be shattered forever? Convicted of a crime she didn’t commit, Allie watched a decade of her life vanish – time that can never be recovered. Now, out on parole, Allie is determined to…

View Post

Book Spotlight: Parting Gifts by Katrina Anne Willis

Title:Parting Gifts Author:Katrina Anne Willis Published:April 2016, She Writes Press Format:Paperback, 288 pages Broken by their unorthodox Midwestern childhood, sisters Catherine, Anne, and Jessica Mathers search for love, acceptance, and worth often in the most unlikely places. Catherine, the oldest of the Mathers sisters, is an English professor battling breast cancer with Cytoxan, red wine, and profanity. Anne is a wife and stay-at-home mother of two struggling to make ends…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in April 15

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   While I did pretty well getting my steps in, it was more of just being super busy this past week. I only made it to the gym one day and never really did anything else other than taking the dogs for their usual walks – though due to the nicer weather towards the end…

View Post

Review: Ana of California by Andi Teran (audio)

Title:Ana of California Author:Andi Teran Narrator:Andi Teran Published:July 2015, Dreamscape Media, LLC / Penguin Books Length:8 hours 46 minutes / ARC e-copy, 368 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Netgalley A modern take on the classic coming-of-age novel, inspired by Anne of Green Gables In the grand tradition of Anne of Green Gables, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and The Three Weissmanns of Westport, Andi Teran’s captivating debut novel offers a contemporary…

View Post

Review: No One Needs to Know by Kevin O’Brien (audio)

Title:No One Needs to Know Author:Kevin O’Brien Narrator:Jonathan Yen Published:July 2015, Tantor Audio / Kensington Books Length:16 hours 25 minutes / ARC E-copy 416 pages Source:Personal Copy via Audible / Netgalley A SECRET WORTH KILLING FOR… In July 1970, actress Elaina Styles was slain in her rented Seattle mansion along with her husband and their son’s nanny. When the baby’s remains were found buried in a shallow grave close to…

View Post

Review: After the Crash by Michel Bussi

Title:After the Crash Author:Michel Bussi Published:January 2016, Hachette Books Format:ARC Paperback, 384 pages Source:Publisher Hailed as “a novel so extraordinary that it reminded me of reading Stieg Larsson for the very first time” (Sunday Times, UK), a near-million copy bestseller in Europe–centered on a tragic plane crash in the Alps and the mystery surrounding its only survivor, an infant girl. A night flight from Istanbul bound for Paris, filled with…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in April 8

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About     I really wish the weather would stay consistent…we’ve had some really nice, warm weather and then it gets cold again! This weekend it’s cold with the potential for snow – I’m so done with snow! And we have frost warnings for both days this weekend. My poor plants are never going to bloom…

View Post

Review: What We Find by Robyn Carr

Title:What We Find Author:Robyn Carr Series:Sullivan’s Crossing, #1 Published:April 2016, MIRA Format:ARC E-copy, 384 pages Source:Netgalley via Little Bird Publicity Join Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Virgin River and Thunder Point series, as she explores the healing powers of rural Colorado in a brand-new story of fresh starts, budding relationships and one woman’s journey to finding the happiness she’s long been missing   Between the…

View Post

Review: Lies and Other Acts of Love by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Title:Lies and Other Acts of Love Author:Kristy Woodson Harvey Published:April 2016, Berkley Format:ARC Paperback, 352 pages Source:Author Dear Carolina was praised as “Southern fiction at its best.” Now author Kristy Woodson Harvey presents a new novel about what it really means to tell the truth . . . After sixty years of marriage and five daughters, Lynn “Lovey” White knows that all of us, from time to time, need to…

View Post

Book Spotlight: A Girl Like You by Michelle Cox

Title:A Girl Like You Author:Michelle Cox Series:The Henrietta & Inspector Howard series, #1 Published:April 2016, She Writes Press Format:Paperback, 288 pages   Henrietta Von Harmon works as a 26 girl at a corner bar on Chicago s northwest side. It s 1935, but things still aren t looking up since the big crash and her father s subsequent suicide, leaving Henrietta to care for her antagonistic mother and younger siblings.…

View Post

Review: Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon

Title:Try Not to Breathe Author:Holly Seddon Narrator:Elizabeth Knowelden, Katharine McEwan Published:February 2016, Random House Audio / Ballantine Books Length:11 Hours 22 minutes / ARC E-copy 369 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Netgalley For fans of Gillian Flynn, Laura Lippman, and Paula Hawkins comes Holly Seddon’s arresting fiction debut—an engrossing thriller full of page-turning twists and turns, richly imagined characters, and gripping psychological suspense.   Some secrets never die. They’re…

View Post