Tag: booklovers bookreviews

21 DARES by JC GATLIN

21 Dares

It’s all fun and games until someone dies…

Two months into college, Abbie Reed is about to turn 21. Not expecting a big deal as she really has no friends unless you call her cat, Clem, a friend, which she does. Her roommate is older and although they share an apartment, they haven’t made any attempts to get to know each other.

Daily calls from her father, going to classes and seeing a very odd shrink 2 days a week is pretty much all she’s doing.

Until the day she notices someone following her. Every day. Every where. When her shrink suggests she use her birthday as an opportunity to be more social, she isn’t interested in the least. The day before her birthday, she receives a call from a girl she knew back home. When McKenzie would come to visit her Grandmother, she and Abbie would spend time together, but Abbie does not consider her a friend. Abbie and her father lived with her Grandparents, having moved from Tampa after a traumatic event.

The title 21 Dares, relates to the game that McKenzie and Abbie’s roommate, Susan have set up. But why would someone she barely knows throw her this bizarre birthday party and game. She receives the dares by text and as the night goes on it becomes obvious that this is not a game for one of the participants. It is revenge. Sick and twisted, revenge. But for what? And finally she will come face to face with the mysterious man following her. But can she believe him?

I liked the premise of the story, if some of the characters were a bit lacking in personality and we didn’t know much about any of them except Abbie.

But it was a nice easy read and good for a YA book!

The Girl Before by J.P.Delaney *Release Day*

The Girl Before
A true Psychological Thriller! I wanted it to keep going! Even though I did not see that ending coming. Which is wonderful.
The story of two women, Emma/Then and Jane/Now. Flipping back and forth between the two seamlessly.
Their only connection is a house. One Folgate Street. An odd house with an even odder owner, the architect who designed it to live in with his own family. Now it sits empty, as if waiting for the right tenant.The vetting process is extreme and the house comes with an iron clad list of rules. Think Minimalist, extreme minimalist. The house is built to read and anticipate your needs and moods. The house is almost a character itself in the story. There comes a time when you wonder if the house is guilty!

Emma and her boyfriend, Simon, move into the house after Emma was home alone when there was a break in. Thinking she would feel safe here in this house and that they could learn to live simply.

Jane moves in after her own traumatic experience and soon discovers the previous tenant died in the house. This doesn’t seem to bother her, but it does send her on a quest to find out who killed this girl, and that quest puts her own life in jeopardy.

Edward Monkford, the architect, has some issues, but is he a killer?

I can tell you that no one in this book is who or what they seem. Reading this was like peeling back the layers of an onion, until you finally get to the center of it and realize you really never know anyone.

The twists and turns were fast and shocking. The author’s head must be a very interesting place to be!

There are so many good UK writers out there. I don’t know if they have always been there or maybe I just wasn’t looking in the right place. The past 5 books I’ve read have been by UK writers and I am loving what they are doing!

I will definitely read this again and recommend it! Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this copy. The Release Date for this book is January of 2017.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. P. Delaney is the pseudonym of an an acclaimed crime writer who is also a creative director for the largest advertising agency in the U.K.

The Girl From The Sea by Shalini Boland

The Girl from the Sea

Washed up on the beach at Dorset, half drowned and with no memory of what happened to her or even who she is, Mia James is alone and frightened.

The police aren’t sure either, until a man steps forward to say that Mia is his girlfriend. He’s pretty nice looking, but Mia has no idea who he is. However since the police believe him, she lets him take her home. He seems to want to just pick up where they supposedly left off before her accident and Mia isn’t so sure she’s even the same person as she was before.

When she begins having memories or hallucinations about a blonde woman coming for her meaning to do her harm, she isn’t sure what is real and what isn’t. Was someone trying to kill her? Was it someone she knows?

As Mia tries to put together what her life was like before, things turn ugly. And that is all I am telling you!  Because I didn’t see that ending coming at all! And I’m pretty good at that.

How wonderful to have a new voice in the Psychological Thriller genre!

As soon as I saw this cover, I wanted this book. Thank you Netgalley for a great read!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hello 🙂 I write suspense thrillers for adults, as well as dark YA adventures. I live in Dorset, England with my husband and two noisy boys. Before children, I was signed to Universal Music as a singer songwriter. As well as writing novels, I also run eBookSoda – a place for readers to get FREE and bargain ebooks – yay!

The Gail Force ( A Jake Travis Novel) by Robert Lane

The Gail Force by [Lane, Robert]

Jake Travis is back and once again up to his neck in bad guys!

When Riley Anderson shows up on Jake’s lawn looking for help and telling a fantastic story, we just know he’s going to help her find the man responsible for murdering her husband and return the favor.

Using an art gallery as a front for his wicked little blackmail schemes, Phillip Agatha has thugs as well as politicians and the FBI in his pockets. And the discovery of this sent Riley and her husband, Karl to the FBI, who in turn dropped them in a remote location where Agatha was waiting to get rid of them. Only Riley gets away.

Jake calls in some favors and gets himself involved. Although he can grudgingly admire Agatha’s knowledge and outlook on life, he knows he will need all of his wits to pull this off. Who can he trust at the FBI? Will he be able to rescue the lovely assistant, Christina?

Will he ever get off the Gail Force alive? And keep the people he cares about safe?

Mr. Lane’s writing is clean, crisp, no wasted words here, just edge of your seat suspense and nail biting twists! There wasn’t a pause in the action and I read this in one sitting. I had to know who was behind it all!

Looks as though we have another really good player on the field of Crime Thrillers!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Lane’s debut novel, “The Second Letter,” garnered critical acclaim. It won the Gold Medal in the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) 2015 Benjamin Franklin Awards, for Best New Voice:Fiction.

His second stand-alone Jake Travis novel, “Cooler Than Blood,” was released February 24, 2015. ForeWord Clarion Reviews said “Cooler Than Blood” is “…gripping and highly enjoyable…Jake is at once a classic noir character…a fascinating protagonist.” Adds Kirkus Reviews, “Lane delivers a confident, engaging Florida tale with a cast of intriguing characters. A solid, entertaining mystery.”

Lane’s third novel,The Cardinal’s Sin is a finalist in the 18th annual Foreword Reviews INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards.

Kirkus Reviews proclaims “The Cardinal’s Sin,” released August, 2015, “A cinematic tale…the prose is confident and clear, and the pacing smooth and compelling. Another entertaining mystery from Lane–possibly his best yet.”

“This brilliantly calibrated thriller,” adds Foreword Clarion Review, “bests the leading sellers in its class. Lane’s writing is sharp, evocative, and engaging. Lane, through Jake, wrestles questions of cosmological import with skill, outdoing Dan Brown and writers of his ilk as he juggles theology and mystery.” Five Stars.

Lane’s fourth Jake Travis novel, “The Gail Force” will be released September 21, 2016. In advance praise, Kirkus Reviews states, “The plot crackles with energy and suspense. The writing is crisp…clever. A consistently entertaining crime thriller.” Foreword Clarion gives it Five Stars, and says, “There’s little chance that anyone will turn the page before developing a craving for the next installment.”

Thank you to Netgalley for this copy.  Release Date is Sept. 20, 2016

 

Beignets, Brides and Bodies by J.R.Ripley

Grabbing my cup of Chai Tea this morning with some almond milk and nibbling a beignet. Okay, so I’m not nibbling, I am gobbling.

Beignets, Brides and Bodies: A Cozy Mystery Set in Smalltown Arizona

When we last saw Maggie Miller, she was trying to open her Beignet and Coffee shop in Table Rock, Arizona. And also trying to figure out how a dead body got into her storeroom.

Remember Clive and Johnny from the wedding shop next door? Well, when he pops into Maggie’s shop to beg a ride out to the cake shop to drop off a color swatch for the wedding cake, Maggie, who drives a Schwinn, borrows her brother in law Andy’s truck and heads out.

When Clive returns to the truck extremely shaken, he shows Maggie what he found. A body lying at the bottom of the stairs underneath a wedding cake. Now Clive and Johnny are suspects and Maggie isn’t going to stop nosing around until they are cleared.

But who to suspect? Table Rock is not exactly full of your normal everyday citizens. Think Area 51 meets new age hippies. Anyone could have done this horrible crime. Just as she thinks she has the killer figured out….bam! Plot twist! 

I love all of the oddball characters in Ripley’s books. They are people just like the people you probably know, a bit weird, but very lovable. I was right with Maggie in her thinking and was so very wrong!  Good Job, Mr. Ripley! You got me on this one!

Just one mention of Maggie trying to perfect a recipe for a chocolate beignet had me off the computer for 2 days trying to make one. Still working on that! However if you would like to make your own beignets, Cafe’ du Monde sells their boxed mix at Super Targets and specialty stores. Or if you are feeling adventurous you can whip some up in no time!

You can find all of the author’s books on Amazon!  You can find the author in New Orleans today eating beignets most likely! https://goo.gl/wk8NsU

Thank you Netgalley and Severn House. Look for the book coming out Nov.1, 2016

Beignets

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 envelope active dry yeast
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup evaporated milk
7 cups bread flour
1/4 cup shortening
Nonstick spray
Oil, for deep-frying
3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions
Mix water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.
In another bowl, beat the eggs, salt and evaporated milk together. Mix egg mixture to the yeast mixture. In a separate bowl, measure out the bread flour. Add 3 cups of the flour to the yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add the shortening and continue to stir while adding the remaining flour. Remove dough from the bowl, place onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Put dough into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Let rise in a warm place for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oil in a deep-fryer to 350 degrees F.
Add the confectioners’ sugar to a paper or plastic bag and set aside.
Roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness and cut into 1-inch squares. Deep-fry, flipping constantly, until they become a golden color. After beignets are fried, drain them for a few seconds on paper towels, and then toss them into the bag of confectioners’ sugar. Hold bag closed and shake to coat evenly.

 

Penguin Random House Fall Debut Fiction 2016

I was really excited to see this! Debut Fiction is always fun. And this list is really good.

There are 9 different titles with a couple of chapters each to peek at.

And the winners are…..

  1. The Bear and the Nightingale: A Novel by Katherine Arden (Jan.2017)
  2. The Mothers: A Novel by Brit Bennett  (Oct. 2016)
  3. Ninth City Burning by J. Patrick Black (Sept. 2016)
  4. The Education of Dixie Dupree by Donna Everhart (Oct. 2016)
  5. The Nix: A Novel by Nathan Hill  (2016)
  6. The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies  (Sept. 2016)
  7. Behold the Dreamers: A Novel by Imbolo Mbue (2016)
  8. The Mortifications: A Novel by Derek Palacio ( Oct. 2016)
  9. First Light by Bill Rancic (Nov. 2016)

I am definitely adding The Bear and the Nightingale, The Mothers,The Education of Dixie Dupree, Behold the Dreamers and First Light to my TBR list!

Thank you to Penguin Random House!

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

Lilac Girls
Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this debut novel reveals a story of love, redemption, and secrets that were hidden for decades.

The story of three women, and their own experiences with WWII.

One, a wealthy young woman living in New York and doing the best she can for the orphans and other displaced persons in France. Caroline Ferriday, finds herself in a relationship with an actor, who is also married and has a wife in France.

In Poland, we find Kasia Kuzmerick, a teenager whose youth is about to be ended when Poland is invaded. Kasia has a strength unlike I have ever seen. No matter what horrors she endures, she still puts one foot in front of the other and survives. But along with the physical scars, the emotional scars are heartbreaking.

In Germany, Herta Oberheuser, a young idealistic German doctor, is looking for a place she can use and practice what she has learned. When she answers an ad, her life and the lives of many others will be impacted.

Based on real people this story is one we all need to read. No matter how many articles or books I read on the Holocaust, it never gets easier and yet it must be told. This story of hope, courage, love, and selflessness is one I will recommend to one and all.

This book was difficult to read but the story was much more difficult for those living it.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Martha Hall Kelly   Martha Hall Kelly

Website

http://www.marthahallkelly.com

 

Martha is a native New Englander but has become nomadic, splitting her time between New York City, Martha’s Vineyard and Atlanta, Georgia. She worked as an advertising copywriter for many years and raised three splendid children, while researching Lilac Girls, her first novel. When Martha is not chasing after her new puppy she is hard at work on her next book. You’ll find more info about the true story behind Lilac Girls at her website: http://www.marthahallkelly.com and lots of visual inspiration for the book on the Pinterest account she is madly in love with.

 

XXP