Category: Families

Don’t Look For Me by Wendy Walker

Don't Look for Me

People walk away from their lives every day. Especially when the pain at home is unbearable. But is that what happened to Molly Clarke?

When her car is found abandoned on the side of a road, out of gas, during a storm, the police and her family search everywhere for her. False leads and suspicious people make the search difficult.

A note is found at the only hotel telling her family not to look for her. But her daughter is not buying it. She is determined to find her mother. Believing there is no way she would abandon them.

Everyone in this little town is sketchy. I didn’t believe any of them. The suspense in this thriller built layer by layer until I was reading at warp speed!

This was a heartbreaking story of loss, guilt, insanity and what women will do to survive.

The question is what did happen to Molly Clarke? And will her daughter live to find out?

One very well done book!

NetGalley/ September 15th, 2020 by St. Martin’s Press

TAKEN TOO SOON by EDITH MAXWELL

Taken Too Soon

Quaker Midwife Mystery #6

Rose Carroll and her brand new husband, David, haven’t even finished their wedding reception when word is received from her elderly aunts that their ward has died and she must come immediately.

The young girl’s murder has rattled her aunts and the entire New England town. And as Rose works with the detectives to find the killer, David must deal with his rakish brother and his manipulative mother.

Family secrets, long-held grudges, and misunderstandings abound and Rose is ready to find a killer and get back to her beloved.

This is one of my favorite series! Rose is such an interesting character and I can’t wait to see what Ms. Maxwell will have in store for Rose and David!

NetGalley/ September 8th, 2020 by Beyond the Page

 

 

 

LITTLE DISASTERS by Sarah Vaughn

Little Disasters: A Novel

A new emotionally charged, psychological suspense thrill ride from Sarah Vaughn.

Dr. Liz Trenchard is a pediatrician working in the pediatric ward. When she is asked to take a look at a baby in the emergency room who has a suspicious injury and the mother is being evasive.

When she arrives she finds a good friend of hers through the baby group and her baby girl. Liz is shocked at both Jess’s condition and the baby’s. This isn’t the same woman she knows. Jess is the one who makes motherhood look effortless, but this woman is nervous, on edge, and very cagey about what happened and when.

While the police investigate, Liz is dealing with issues of her own as she learns of secrets in her own childhood that will leave her stunned and wondering about another baby.

Full of mystery and suspense! A very real look at post-partum illness and how much more we need to learn about it.

Outstanding and very well written.

NetGalley/ August 18th, 2020 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books

 

 

Bronte’s Mistress by Finola Austin

Bronte's Mistress

This dazzling debut novel for fans of Mrs. Poe and Longbourn explores the scandalous historical love affair between Branwell Brontë and Lydia Robinson, giving voice to the woman who allegedly corrupted her son’s innocent tutor and brought down the entire Brontë family.

This is a tale of Branwell Bronte and Lydia Robinson, the mistress of Thorp Green Hall. It is 1843 in Yorkshire and Lydia has suffered not one but two devastating losses this year. Her mother and her youngest daughter.

She doesn’t get much sympathy from her husband, who all but ignores her and the children, and to be honest, she isn’t a very sympathetic character. 

She already has one Bronte sister tutoring her teenage daughters but now has hired a tutor for her only son. And Branwell is the lucky chap. Down on his own luck, at loose ends and fighting his own demons while dealing with his own rather odd family.

He is very passionate about life, the theater, and music and regales them with tales of his sisters, but under the surface, you can just feel the rather manic energy and short temper. As the two begin an illicit relationship, he gets more and more erratic and Lydia knows she must end things to keep her own reputation intact and before those pesky sisters get involved.

 

NetGalley Review/ August 4th, 2020 by Atria Books

behind the red door by Megan Collins

Behind the Red Door: A Novel

From the author of The Winter Sister, comes this psychological thriller that seriously messed with my head!

Fern had an unorthodox upbringing to say the least! There are gaps in her memory and one day watching the news she sees a story about Astrid Sullivan, 34, and missing. But this isn’t the first time she has gone missing. Fern is positive she knows this woman. Scraps of memories bring nightmares that feel real.

Fern’s husband is convinced she is probably just remembering reading the first story as it happened near her childhood home. But Fern isn’t so sure.

When her distant father asks her to come home to help him clear out the house, she should have just hung up the phone!

I really don’t want to say a lot about the story. It is too wickedly twisted and you should have the joy of discovering what I did. And OMG! I just thought my family was screwy!

A great followup to The Winter Sister!

NetGalley/ August 4th, 2020 by Atria Books

 

 

 

THE VACATION by T.M.LOGAN

The Vacation

Seven days. Three families. One killer.

Four women. Friends since college decide to join each other and their families for a week’s vacation in a lovely villa in France.

Things are tense from the start. It looks like everyone’s family is not quite as together as they would like one to think. Only one of them has not married and she’s acting sketchy. Heck, everyone was shady and keeping secrets!

To tell you the truth I did not care for even one of them. Maybe Daniel. But it doesn’t matter because the story was that good!

Someone is willing to kill to keep their truth secret. But is it who you think it is?

This is one vacation I’ll pass on. But I’ll take the book!

Well Done!

NetGalley/ July 21st, 2020 by St. Martin’s Press

The Dilemma by B.A.Paris

The Dilemma

Livia has been planning her 40th birthday party for 20 years! She wants it to be perfect and make up for the wedding she never had when her parents disowned her for getting pregnant and married so young.

But life has been good to Livia and Adam. Their two children Marnie,19 and Josh, 22 are both good kids. Until Livia finds out one of them is not making such good decisions and she knows if she tells Adam he will go ballistic. So she keeps her secret until after her party and hopes Marnie doesn’t show up and blow things up.

Adam is determined to have Marnie come home for the party and surprise her mother. And now Adam has a secret. One that will tear the family apart and he can’t say a word. Nothing happens until Livia has had her day. But suddenly something happens that puts Adam in an awful position and wishing he had never asked Marnie to come.

Suspenseful and twisty, I wasn’t sure until the last minute if any of it was true. This was a wicked good domestic suspense.

Highly Recommend a read!

NetGalley/ June 30th, 2020 by St. Martin’s Press

 

 

 

 

SAVING RUBY KING by Catherine Adel West

Saving Ruby King

Family. Faith. Secrets. Everything in this world comes full circle.
Ruby King lives on Chicago’s South Side. Her best friend is Layla, daughter of the Pastor. Her mother and Ruby’s are life long friends.
Everyone in the church knows that Alice’s husband beats her so it isn’t shocking when she is murdered in her own home.
The police dismiss it as just more violence in this area. But Ruby has lost her mother and now her father takes his frustrations out on her.
Her father has dirt on the pastor so he isn’t helping Ruby. Everyone has secrets. Everyone is assuming a lot. There are awful secrets and in the end, no one can save Ruby but Ruby.

It is hard to believe this is a debut novel! We hear the viewpoints of all the main characters and their heartbreaking secrets. This one of the most honest and touching books I have read.
NetGalley/June 16th, 2020 by Park Row

THE HALF SISTER by SANDIE JONES

The Half Sister

Kate and Lauren are sisters who have nothing in common on the surface. One is career-oriented and seems to live a glamourous and carefree life with her husband while the other is married to a jerk with kids and an unhappy life.

But on Sunday they all sit at their recently widowed mother’s home for dinner. They are all still grieving. Kate was especially close to her father while Lauren has always been closer to their mother, Rose.

What no one knows is Kate has been trying for years to conceive a baby. And Lauren would just as soon leave her husband and escape her life.

All of that is the backdrop for the one Sunday dinner when there is a knock at the door and a woman stands there asking for their father. Who she says is her father as well. It seems she has uploaded her DNA and found a match with Lauren. But has she? Can they believe anything she says?

These sisters could have avoided all of this if any of them had bothered to talk to each other. But secrets are what families do. And sometimes they are what blows your world apart. And everyone in this book is keeping secrets!

There were some issues I had with the DNA thing, but overall it was a good mystery!

NetGalley/ June 16th, 2020 by Minotaur Books

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Momma! I Give You a Grandchild!

Today is my Momma’s birthday! Yes, the one I tell tales about. But this is a good tale.

I never know what to get her. She has everything, However, this one time, I gave her the gift of life.

I was pregnant and ready to have this mess over with. Momma had come to stay with me as I didn’t know nothing about having no babies. On June 6th I woke my husband up to tell him the bed had sprung a leak. It was a water bed. Turns out it had not. I had sprung a leak.

We got ourselves together and went to the hospital. A Catholic hospital. That is important because I was born in a Catholic hospital and my momma was still carrying a grudge against them because they told her that if she had complications their first priority was to save the baby. It was my first baby so I didn’t want to make a fuss so for 36 hours I screamed and cried and begged them to just kill me. Finally, my Momma spoke up and told them to get that baby out NOW! She threatened to take me to a real hospital. Finally, on her birthday, June 8th, they got that baby out! Happy Birthday Momma, here’s a baby.

I don’t know what I would have done without her. For months I was miserable. I loved my son but had no idea what to do with him. Thank you, Momma, for that and so much more. As for the said baby, he gave me my first grandchild. And don’t tell anyone, but he really is my favorite!

Enjoy and be safe!

xx P