WWW READING…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING:  The Cousins, by Karen M. McManus

From the bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying comes your next obsession. You’ll never feel the same about family again.

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BOOKS REVIEWED SINCE MY POST OF 1/12/21:

The Love Story of Missy Carmichael, by Beth Morrey

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The Wife Upstairs, by Rachel Hawkins

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The Push, by Ashley Audrain

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING:  Find Me, by Alafair Burke (Coming August 3, 2021)

Synopsis: The disappearance of a young woman leaves her closest friend reeling and an NYPD homicide detective digging into her own past in this thrilling mystery full of twists from the New York Times bestselling author of The Better Sister and The Wife.

Some pasts won’t stay forgotten . . .

She calls herself Hope Miller, but she has no idea who she actually is. Fourteen years ago, she was found in a small New Jersey town thrown from an overturned vehicle, with no clue to her identity. Doctors assumed her amnesia was a temporary side effect of her injuries, but she never regained her memory. Hope eventually started a new life with a new name in a new town that welcomed her, yet always wondered what she may have left behind—or been running from. Now, fourteen years later, she’s leaving New Jersey to start over once again.

Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly, Hope’s best friend and the one who found her after the accident, understands why Hope wants a new beginning. But she worries how her friend will fare in her new East Hampton home, far away from everything familiar. Lindsay’s worst fears are confirmed when she discovers Hope has vanished without a trace—the only lead a drop of blood found where she was last seen. Even more ominously, the blood matches a DNA sample with a connection to a notorious Kansas murderer.

With nowhere else to turn, Lindsay calls NYPD homicide detective Ellie Hatcher, the daughter of the cop who dedicated his life to hunting the Kansas killer.  Ellie has always believed there was more to the story of her father’s death twenty years earlier—and she now fears that Hope’s recent disappearance could be related.

In pursuit of answers, three women search for the truth beneath long-buried secrets. And when their searches converge, what they find will upend everything they’ve ever known. 

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That was my week.  What did yours look like?

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WEDNESDAY READING…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING:  The Love Story of Missy Carmichael, by Beth Morrey

For readers of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and A Man Called Ove, a life-affirming, deeply moving “coming-of-old” story, a celebration of how ordinary days are made extraordinary through friendship, family, and the power of forgiving yourself–at any age.

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BOOKS READ & REVIEWED SINCE LAST POST OF 1/5/21:

Shelter in Place, by David Leavitt

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The Wrong Family, by Tarryn Fisher

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING – A book that will be released on June 1, 2021, from an author I enjoy:  Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Synopsis:  Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time for him to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come rising to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them . . . and what they will leave behind.

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That was my week.  What did yours look like?

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HUMP DAY READING…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING: Shelter in Place, by David Leavitt

“Very funny and unexpected, a material response to our times, plush as velvet.” –Rachel Cusk

“A wickedly funny and emotionally expansive novel about all the bewildering ways we seek solace from the people and things that surround us.” – Jenny Offill

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BOOKS READ & REVIEWED SINCE LAST POST OF 12/29/20:

The Arrangement, by Robyn Harding

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Piece of My Heart, by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke:  First Book of 2021:

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING:  I am excited about a new B.A. Paris novel:  The Therapist, which will be released on July 13, 2021.

Synopsis:  The multimillion-copy New York Times bestselling author B.A. Paris returns to her heartland of gripping psychological suspense in The Therapist–a powerful tale of a house that holds a shocking secret.

When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they’ve dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive…

As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before.

Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbors are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem…

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That was my week.  What did yours look like?

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WWW: A WEEK OF READING…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING: The Arrangement, by Robyn Harding

A Pretty Woman tale turns toxic and deadly in this provocative thriller of sex, obsession, and murder from Robyn Harding, the “master of domestic suspense” (Kathleen Barber) and the USA TODAY bestselling author of The Swap and Her Pretty Face.

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BOOKS READ & REVIEWED SINCE 12/22/20:

Behind the Red Door, by Megan Collins

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The Last Wife, by Karen Hamilton

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The Lies You Told, by Harriet Tyce

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING: Before She Disappeared, by Lisa Gardner, is a book that will be released on January 19, 2021.  I have pre-ordered it.

Synopsis:  From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a propulsive thriller featuring an ordinary woman who will stop at nothing to find the missing people that the rest of the world has forgotten

Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will–searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking.

A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim’s wary family tells Frankie she’s on her own–and she soon learns she’s asking questions someone doesn’t want answered. But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.

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That was my week.  What did yours look like?

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HUMP DAY READING…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING: Behind the Red Door, by Megan Collins

The author of the “suspenseful, atmospheric, and completely riveting” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author) debut The Winter Sister returns with a darkly thrilling novel about a woman who comes to believe that she has a connection to a decades old kidnapping and now that the victim has gone missing again, begins a frantic search to learn what happened in the past.

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BOOKS READ & REVIEWED SINCE LAST POST OF 12/15/20:

Rodham, by Curtis Sittenfeld

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Dirt, by Mary Marantz

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Cruel Winter, by Sheila Connolly

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING:

The Wrong Family, by Tarryn Fisher, is a book that will be released on December 29, so I don’t have long to wait.

Synopsis:  From the author of the instant New York Times bestseller The Wives comes another twisted psychological thriller guaranteed to turn your world upside down.

Have you ever been wrong about someone?

Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch.

Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage, the perfect son—the perfect life. Only now that she’s living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore.

Still, she isn’t one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno overhears a chilling conversation between Winnie and Nigel…

She shouldn’t get involved.

She really shouldn’t.

But this could be her chance to make a few things right.

Because if you thought Juno didn’t have a secret of her own, then you were wrong about her, too.

***

That was my week.  What did yours look like?

***

HUMP DAY READING…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING: Rodham, by Curtis Sittenfeld

“Deviously clever . . . Sittenfeld’s Hillary is both a player in the Game of Thrones and a romance novel heroine. She’s a brilliant badass who has found her voice and knows how to use it. She’s whoever she wants to be.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

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BOOKS READ & REVIEWED SINCE DECEMBER 8, 2020:

Goodnight Beautiful, by Aimee Molloy

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Clear My Name, by Paula Daly

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING: Count the Ways, by Joyce Maynard, a book I have pre-ordered which will be released on May 25, 2021

Synopsis:  In her most ambitious novel to date, New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard takes on the story of a family—from the hopeful early days of young marriage to parenthood, divorce, and its costly aftermath—to illuminate how the mistakes of parents are passed down through generations to fester, or to be healed. 

After falling in love in the last years of the 1970s, Eleanor and Cam follow their dream of raising three children on a New Hampshire farm. Theirs is a seemingly idyllic life of summer softball games and Labor Day cookouts, snow days and skating on the pond. But when a tragic accident permanently injures the family’s youngest child, Eleanor blames Cam. Her inability to forgive him leads to a devastating betrayal: an affair with the family babysitter that brings about the end of their marriage.

Over the decades that follow, the five members of this fractured family—and the many others who make up their world—make surprising discoveries and decisions that occasionally bring them together, and often tear them apart. As we follow the family from the days of illegal abortion and the draft through the early computer age, the Challenger explosion, the AIDS epidemic, the early awakenings of the #MeToo era, and beyond through the gender transition of one of the children and another’s choice to cease communication with her mother we witness a family forced to confront essential, painful truths of its past, and find redemption in the face of unanticipated disaster.

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These are my books from the week.  What did your week look like?

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BOOKISH WEDNESDAY…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING: Goodnight Beautiful, by Aimee Molloy

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BOOKS READ & REVIEWED SINCE DECEMBER 1:

I Was Told It Would Get Easier, by Abbi Waxman

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Open House, by Katie Sise

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Christmas Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella

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The Girl in the Mirror, by Rose Carlyle

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING: The Wrong Family, by Tarryn Fisher, will be released on December 29, 2020

Have you ever been wrong about someone?

Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch.

Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage, the perfect son—the perfect life. Only now that she’s living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore.

Still, she isn’t one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno overhears a chilling conversation between Winnie and Nigel…

She shouldn’t get involved.

She really shouldn’t.

But this could be her chance to make a few things right.

Because if you thought Juno didn’t have a secret of her own, then you were wrong about her, too.

From the wickedly dark mind of bestselling author Tarryn Fisher, The Wrong Family is a taut new thriller that’s riddled with twists in all the right places.

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That was my week.  What did yours look like?

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BOOKISH WEDNESDAY…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING: I Was Told It Would Get Easier, by Abbi Waxman

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BOOKS READ SINCE MY LAST POST OF 11/24/20:

Take It Back, by Kia Abdullah – (NG-12/8/20)

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Out of Her Mind, by T. R. Ragan

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING: 

I downloaded this book today, and hope to read it soon:

Dirt, by Mary Marantz

Synopsis;: Dirt is a story about the places where we start. From a single-wide trailer in the mountains of rural West Virginia to the halls of Yale Law School, Mary Marantz’s story is one of remembering our roots while turning our faces to the sky. From growing up in that trailer, where it rained just as hard inside as out and the smell of mildew hung thick in the air, Mary has known what it is to feel broken and disqualified because of the muddy scars leaving smudged fingerprints across our lives. Generations of her family lived and logged in those hauntingly treacherous woods, risking life and limb just to barely scrape by. And yet that very struggle became the redemption song God used to write a life she never dreamed of.

Mixed with warmth, wit, and the bittersweet, sometimes achingly heartbreaking places we go when we dig in instead of give up, Dirt is a story of healing. With gut-wrenching honesty and hard-won wisdom, Mary shares her story for anyone who has ever walked into the world and felt like their scars were still on display, showing that you are braver, better, and more empathetic for what you have survived. Because God does his best work in the muddy, messy, and broken–if we’ll only learn to dig in.

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That was my week.  What did yours look like?

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WWW POST…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING:  Take It Back, by Kia Abdullah (NetGalley – 12/8/20)

From author Kia Abdullah, Take It Back is a harrowing and twisting courtroom thriller that keeps you guessing until the last page is turned.

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BOOKS READ & REVIEWED SINCE MY LAST POST ON 11/10/20:

The Next Wife, by Liz Lawler

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The Lost and Found Bookshop, by Susan Wiggs

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Don’t Make a Sound, by T. R. Ragan

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I’ll Be Seeing You, by Elizabeth Berg

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING: Gone for Good, by Joanna Schaffhausen, coming on August 10, 2021

Gone For Good is the first in a new mystery series from award-winning author Joanna Schaffhausen, featuring Detective Annalisa Vega, in which a cold case heats up.

The Lovelorn Killer murdered seven women, ritually binding them and leaving them for dead before penning them gruesome love letters in the local papers. Then he disappeared, and after twenty years with no trace of him, many believe that he’s gone for good.

Not Grace Harper. A grocery store manager by day, at night Grace uses her snooping skills as part of an amateur sleuth group. She believes the Lovelorn Killer is still living in the same neighborhoods that he hunted in, and if she can figure out how he selected his victims, she will have the key to his identity.

Detective Annalisa Vega lost someone she loved to the killer. Now she’s at a murder scene with the worst kind of déjà vu: Grace Harper lies bound and dead on the floor, surrounded by clues to the biggest murder case that Chicago homicide never solved. Annalisa has the chance to make it rights and to heal her family, but first, she has to figure out what Grace knew—how to see a killer who may be standing right in front of you. This means tracing his steps back to her childhood, peering into dark corners she hadn’t acknowledged before, and learning that despite everything the killer took, she has still so much more to lose.

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These books were my last two weeks of reading.  What did your week/weeks look like?

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BOOKISH WEDNESDAY…

Today I’m participating in WWW Wednesdays, at Taking on a World of Words.  Here’s how it works:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next, and/or what are you eagerly awaiting?

CURRENTLY READING:

The Next Wife, by Liz Lawler

I should never have married him. I ignored the warnings. It’s what you do when you’re in love. Ignore what you don’t want to see.

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BOOKS READ SINCE MY LAST POST OF 11/3/20:

House of Correction, by Nicci French

 

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Finding Mrs. Ford, by Deborah Goodrich Royce

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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING: This Nicci French book is calling to me…but it will not be released until 4/27/21.  Hence, the eager anticipation.

The Other Side of the Door is definitely on my list.

Synopsis:  Who is more dangerous? An enemy, a friend, or a lover?

When Bonnie Graham arrives at her boyfriend’s apartment in London, she is horrified to discover a dead body in a pool of blood on the floor. But she doesn’t call the police. Bonnie hides the corpse and then carefully wipes away any evidence she was ever there.

Bonnie is a music teacher who spent a long, hot summer in London rehearsing with a band to play at a friend’s wedding. It was supposed to be fun, but the band members find the complicated knots of their friendships—some old, some new—unraveling as the days themselves unwind. What was meant to be a summer of happiness, love, and music turns deadly as lovers betray one another, passions turn murderous, and friendship itself becomes a crime.

Everyone tells lies. But is anyone prepared to tell the truth to uncover a murderer?

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What did your week look like?  What are you hoping to read soon?

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