Category: Families

NEVER HAVE I EVER by JOSHILYN JACKSON

Never Have I Ever

In this game, even winning can be deadly…

 

Amy Whey with her perfect husband, great step-daughter and baby Oliver, has a life she loves. A life she created. She has great friends, a job she loves teaching scuba lessons and a book club of friends. But her best friend is Char. They are a perfect little group of ordinary women.

Life is good until one day there is a new woman on the block. A woman with a fancy red sports car and a teenaged son. Angelica Roux. Even her name sounds seductive. When she insinuates herself into their lives by showing up at their book club, Amy’s internal alarm system is going off. This woman is dangerous. Instead of reading the book, she suggests a game of Never Have I Ever and Amy knows this creature knows her deepest, ugliest secret. One that could ruin everything she has built and cost her everyone in her life.

When Roux gets Amy alone she confirms Amy’s fears. But for the paltry sum of a quarter of a million dollars, Roux will quietly be on her way. Amy has no intention of giving Roux anything. And so begins Amy’s plan to find out just who Roux is and how she even knows about Amy. In a race against the clock, she takes a big gamble and tries to beat Roux at her own game.

This was a twisty one! Secrets, Lies, Betrayals, the sins of our youth coming back to haunt us. The closer I got to the end, the faster I read. She did what??? He’s who??? Oh my gosh!

Well Done!

NetGalley/ July 30, 2019  William Morrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Murmur of Bees by Sophia Segovia

The Murmur of Bees

Translated by Simon Bruni

From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel—her first to be translated into English—about a mysterious child with the power to change a family’s history in a country on the verge of revolution.

The day Nana Reja found a tiny baby under a bridge, wrapped in a blanket of bees, life in their small village in Mexico changed. Baby Simonopio had been kissed by the devil some said. With his deformed mouth, there are some that believe he is the devil. But not the Morales family. They have adopted Nana Reja and Simonopio and love them both deeply.

As he grows he wanders the fields with his swarm of bees. Listening to what they tell him. It seems his purpose is to watch over the family and protect them with the visions he has.

In the middle of the Mexican Revolution and the 1918 flu outbreak, the Morales family survives and with the help of Simonopio, they thrive. Is it magic? Is it love and faith?

Whichever it is there is always someone waiting to destroy what they do not understand and this evil could destroy an entire family.

If this book was this beautiful and moving after the translation,  I can only imagine what it feels like in its native tongue.

It was a pleasure to read and I’m sure I will read it again!

 

 

 

Tomorrow’s Bread by ANNA JEAN MAYHEW

Tomorrow's Bread

From the author of the acclaimed, The Dry Grass of August comes a richly researched yet lyrical Southern-set novel that explores the conflicts of gentrification—a moving story of loss, love, and resilience.

It’s 1961 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The neighborhood of Brooklyn is almost entirely made up of black families and businesses. While there are a lot of run down and shabby homes and storefronts, Loraylee Hawkins lives in a nice home with her grandmother, her uncle and her son, Hawk. She works a full-time job and cares for her grandmother and her son.

Loarylee works at a cafeteria and is involved with her boss. A white man. All very secret, after all this is the South in the early ’60s.

The city of Charlotte has declared Brooklyn a blight on the city and has decided to do some gentrification. Which we all know means bulldozing every house and business and putting in buildings no one can afford. This is their home. They were born here and many died here. But now even the graveyard is being removed in the name of progress.

This is a very familiar story for those of us raised in the deep south. The strength of the characters of this cast was extraordinary. This was a community that supported each other, a family that stood their ground and fought for a better life and for respect.

I am so glad I read this one and I highly recommend it!

Kensington Publishers

 

 

 

 

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

Things You Save in a Fire

Cassie is happy. She is one of the only female firefighters in her Austin department. She’s so good at her job she’s about to receive an award for Valor when we first meet her. She loves her job and her team. Cassie is gobsmacked when the presenter isn’t the Mayor but a Councilman. An enemy from high school. Let’s just say he leaves the stage on a stretcher and Cassie may not be making Lieutenant or even have a job left.

Cassie’s mother left her and her father when Cassie was 16 and she isn’t over it or anything else. So when out of the blue she receives a call from Diana, her mother, asking her to move to the Boston area and stay with her for a year while she is having a bit of a problem with her eye.

Reminding herself it is only temporary she heads out knowing that she will have a job with a much smaller and older station with guys she knows don’t want a woman in their boys’ club. But she needs to stay away from Austin and let the dust settle.

Before leaving Austin her Captain had told her to not make waves and DO. NOT. Date. Firemen. Not a problem for Cassie as she doesn’t even believe in love and never dates. The hazing and lack of support at the station is compounded with a new guy who on day one turns her life upside down!

I loved this story. Every character was so well done. This was a tale of perspective, forgiveness, and the complicated love of family. I was so moved by the courage Cassie and her mother had.

Very Well Done!

NetGalley/ August 13th, 2019 by St. Martin’s Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUMMERTIME AND THE READING IS EASY!

Summer is in full swing here. Lots of sun, sand, and water. And of course, a good book!

Some of my favorite reads this summer have been:

31 of the Best Books of 2018 Oh, what a twisty puzzle this thriller was!

 Mean Girls meets the PTA

 This is an outstanding novel about freedom, racism, and family.

  Another one that tugged at my heartstrings and made me cry!

What is everyone looking forward to reading? At the moment I am reading Campusland by Scott Johnson.

Have a good one! We are under a severe heat warning. I’ll be in the pool!

xx P

A STRANGER ON THE BEACH by MICHELE CAMPBELL

A Stranger on the Beach

Told from two points of view, this thriller actually cost me a fingernail!

Caroline is living the dream. A successful interior designer, who quit to raise her daughter who is now off to college, she is determined to get back in the game and earn her own money. Her husband works long, hard hours in order to provide a lifestyle it would seem they both enjoy.

Staring out the expansive glass windows Caroline spots a man on the beach. Staring at her house. She debates calling the police since he isn’t really doing anything, but at the same time, there have been burglaries lately in this enclave for the rich and famous. Later she will say she wished she had called the police.

Aiden is a bartender in a local bar. Having served time for manslaughter and now determined to show his Chief-of -Police brother that he has changed. He isn’t a teenager anymore and is tired of being treated like trash.

At Caroline’s housewarming party everyone wants to know where Jason is. Even her husbands boss isn’t believing her story of him running late. Later when he shows up with a Russian hussy in tow everything blows up and in front of God and everyone he leaves with the Russian girl and wants a divorce.

Aiden is happy to come to the rescue and Caroline is happy to have him. For a bit.

That is all I’m giving away. Let me just say this was one twisted puzzle that had me speechless for a good hour in the end. What???  I did not see that coming. The pace was perfect. The timing was everything in this wickedly good thriller!

Well Done!

NetGalley/St.Martin’s Press July 23rd, 2019 by St. Martin’s Press