Showing posts with label Dutton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dutton. Show all posts

Friday, July 8, 2022

Book Review - The House Across the Lake; Riley Sager

 

Dutton/Penguin Audio - 2022
(Bernadette Dunne - narrator) - 11 Hours approx.

Casey Fletcher is a former NYC actress and a recent widow.  She is trying get some peace, quiet and relaxation at the family lake house on Lake Greene in Vermont.  She also drinks too much with a penchant for bourbon.  With plenty of time on her hands she takes to spying on her good looking neighbors across the lake, Katherine and Tom Royce. When one day Casey saves Katherines from a drowning incident, the two women become friendlier.  Before long Casey is thinking that the couple across the lake isn't the perfect, happy couple she initially thought they were.  She begins to wonder if perhaps Katherine should fear Tom.

This is one of those thrillers with an unreliable narrator that starts out a bit slow but, I still remained engaged and kept wondering what the heck was going on.  The set up, think The Woman in the Window, AJ Finn or the movie Rear Window. Yes, it is a style that has been overused and, in the end this book had more twists than I could have anticipated -- yes, some were a bit much.

This was a combo read/listen and although Bernadette Dunne has been a terrific narrator that I've enjoyed in the past, she was inappropriate for the voice of the younger Casey. Bernadette, although a great reader, she has a raspy voice that makes her sound like an elderly woman.  After a while I  found it necessary to switch to the print edition.  Overall, this was an okay read but, it did not wow me by any means.

This is my 8th book read from my initial 20 Books of Summer list.

Rating - 3.5/5 stars

(Note:  audio book downloaded from my library and eBook courtesy of the publisher.)

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Book Review - One Step Too Far; Lisa Gardner


One Step Too Far; Lisa Gardner
Dutton - 2022
(eGalley/NetGalley)
(Book # 2 - Frankie Elkin - Missing Persons Series)

After reading Before She Disappeared last year and loving it, I knew I had to read book #2 of that series which was released last month. I wasn't disappointed. This new one can be read as a stand alone as there is a good amount of information about Frankie Elkin, her past and her obsession with finding people who have gone missing. Instead of a Boston setting we move with Frankie to the Wyoming wilderness.

Frankie Elkin is a recovering alcoholic and a troubled soul who has been roaming the country trying to help locate people who have gone missing.  It's the cold cases that the authorities have all but given up on that call her to action.  Her latest travels brings her to Ramsey, Wyoming where a young man named Tim O'Day had gone missing while he and his buddies were on a bachelor party weekend camping and drinking outing in the national forest five years earlier.  Tim's mother is now dying of cancer and his father Martin, wants one final attempt to find the couple's son.  A party of eight, along with a cadaver dog named Daisy are about to begin what will prove to be a most frightening ordeal. It quickly appears that some of them may not escape this wilderness alive.  

From the very first lines of this book I was riveted:

THE FIRST THREE MEN CAME stumbling into town shortly after ten A.M., babbling of dark shapes and eerie screams and their missing buddy Scott and their other buddy Tim, who set out from their campsite before dawn to get help.

"Bear, bear, bear," the first guy moaned.

"Mountain lion!" the second guy insisted.

Third guy vomited.

Frankie Elkin is a wonderful character, she damaged yet she feels deeply and suffers guilt and remorse over things that have happened in the past.  There are very specific details about wilderness survival, clothing, equipment, things needed in an emergency - all that was fascinating to someone like me who has always made it a point to stay out of the woods.   I loved the dynamics between the characters, most of them have changed and suffered in some way since Tim's disappearance. Frankie is a newbie to this group and, of course, she's an outsider that needs to observe and carefully weigh what she says and does to this group of strangers. Bad things happen deep in these woods and the tension and wonder about who will survive this ordeal and whether Tim or his remains be found was always on my mind as I read.  I thought this book was very good and I loved that this one had an ending that I hadn't thought about as well.  Don't miss this new series.

Rating - 4.5/5 stars

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - One Step Too Far; Lisa Gardner

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book ReviewsEach week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book we are reading or plan to read soon.  I started this book and it's quite addictive. It's Book #2 of the Frankie Elkin series which began last year with: Before She Disappeared (loved that one.)

One Step Too Far; Lisa Gardner
Dutton - January 2022
1

THE FIRST THREE MEN CAME stumbling into town shortly after ten A.M., babbling of dark shapes and eerie screams and their missing buddy Scott and their other buddy Tim, who set out from their campsite before dawn to get help.

"Bear, bear, bear," the first guy moaned.

"Mountain lion!" the second guy insisted.

Third guy vomited.

What do you think - read more or pass?  (Lots of details about hiking, camping and rescue and recovery.)

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Book Review - Before She Disappeared; Lisa Gardner

 


TITLE/AUTHOR:  Before She Disappeared; Lisa Gardner

PUBLISHER: Dutton

YEAR PUBLISHED:  2021

GENRE: Fiction Thriller

FORMAT:  eGalley PP/LENGTH: 395 pp.

SOURCE: NetGalley

SETTING(s):  Mattapan, MA


ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY:  One woman on a mission to find the missing people others have forgotten about.


BRIEF REVIEW:  Frankie Elkin is a middle-aged woman and a recovering alcoholic who is obsessed with searching for cold case missing persons.  She travels light and lives dangerously. Her latest mission brings her to the Boston suburb of Mattapan, it's a place know for rival gang activity.   She gets a job as a bartender and a tiny apartment above the bar as long as she's willing to share it with a feral cat who comes and goes. When she's not working or talking with locals she off trying to work the cold case.

Her current missing person is a high school girl named Angelique Badeau who disappeared after school eleven months earlier.  The girl's backpack and cell phone were found in the bushes by the school.  It seems Angie may have even been spotted yet no one is talking.  Angelique has Haitian roots and was a bright girl who had dreams of being a doctor.  Her family and police are not happy about Frankie snooping around for answers, at least at first, but she persists.  

This is a stand alone novel that had some interesting characters. The story is told in the first person so that we slowly get a more intimate look at our troubled protagonist Frankie.  She's tough on the outside yet vulnerable and battling her own demons as her story unfolds. Then there is Stony, the bar owner who takes a chance hiring Frankie and, Viv the cook at the bar, who has taken a liking to Frankie and encouraging a romance between her and Detective Lotham.  The story is a slow build, and although some of what happens seemed a bit unrealistic, that it could have even been pulled off, overall I enjoyed the story quite a bit.  There were some tense moments with gang activity and a twist here and there as well. I'd like to read more about Frankie should she appear in another offering.

RATING: 4/5 stars

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Fifty Words for Rain; Asha Lemmie

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, now hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book ReviewsEach week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book they are reading or that they plan to read soon. 

                                                         Fifty Words for Rain; Asha Lemmie

                                                                        Dutton - 2020

PRELUDE

Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

Summer 1948

"The first real memory Nori had was pulling up to that house. For many years afterward, she would try to stretch the boundaries of her mind further, to what came before that day.  Time and time again, she'd lie on her back in the stillness of the night and try to recall.  Sometimes she'd catch a glimpse in her head of a tiny apartment with lurid yellow walls. But the image would disappear as quickly as it came, leaving no sense of satisfaction in its wake.  And so if you asked her, Nori would say that her life had officially begun the day she laid eyes on that imposing estate that rested serenely between the crests of two green hills. It was a  stunningly beautiful place--there was no denying it--and yet, despite this beauty, Nori felt her stomach clench and her gut churn at the sight of it.  Her mother rarely took her anywhere, and somehow she knew that something was waiting for her there that she would not like."

What do you think pass or read more? I loved the sound of this from the first time I read about it on Judy's Blog, Keep the Wisdom.  I'm enjoying this one so far.

Thursday, August 6, 2020

Book review - In Case of Emergency; E.G. Scott

Dutton - 2020

Charlotte was once a brilliant neurosurgeon but, after one surgery went terribly wrong, she now has an acupuncture practice in Long Island, NY, where she works along with her friend Rachel. Charlotte is also involved in an online support group for trauma survivors.  If things have not been bad enough for her, she also has a strained relationship with her mother and a missing boyfriend, Peter, who she met online and hasn't heard from in a while.

When she gets a call from the police asking her to come to the station to identify a body in a suspicious death case, she thinks maybe it's Peter but, it's a woman who she doesn't seem to know. The deceased woman carried an "In Case of Emergency" card that lead police to Charlotte after her name and number appeared on the card. Now Charlotte becomes a suspect in a murder investigation as the police aren't sure she's being truthful.

This was a near perfect psych thriller that kept me turning those pages. Charlotte is one hot mess; her past, her insecurities and anxiety make her an interesting character for this kind of story. There are two police detectives, Wolcott and Silvestri which were great additions to the story as well; a dynamic duo of good cop bad cop.  A great story with a surprising ending and even though I felt there were a few minor plot elements that didn't feel right, it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story.

Rating - 4.5/5 stars

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - In Case of Emergency; E.G. Scott



Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, now hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews. Each week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book they are reading or that they plan to read soon.

In Case of Emergency, E. G. Scott
Dutton - August / 2020


PROLOGUE

"This is going to end badly.

It's chaos here. They're not listening to me. I've told them that we need to stop operating, but their talking over me, drowning me out.  I know what I'm doing. I'm an integral part of this team.  Hell, I'm the smartest person in the room.

Her vitals are a mess. Her breathing is shallow and labored. Her color is all off."

I started this one and it has really drawn me in. What do you think?

Saturday, July 4, 2020

Book Review - Home Before Dark; Riley Sager


AUTHOR:  Riley Sager
PUBLISHER:  Dutton
PUB. YEAR: 2020
Setting: Vermont
Format: eGalley
Rating - 5/5

It there was ever was ever a twisty, edge of your seat thrill ride that even made me bite my nails a bit, this was it.

Baneberry Hall, a huge victorian estate with a dark past is located deep in the woods of Vermont.  Twenty five years earlier when Maggie was just 5 years old, her parents Ewan and Jess purchased the house and after just spending three weeks living in it, they fled in the middle of the night never to return.

The parents separated and Ewan subsequently wrote a hugely successful tell all book about Baneberry Hall. The non fiction book was called, The House of Horrors. Maggie believed the book was largely fabricated as she didn't recall any of the unearthly happenings reported in the book, many of which had involved her.  The house which she believed her father had sold years earlier remained vacant but, Maggie learns she has inherited the house as part of her deceased father's estate.

Maggie, now 30, renovates houses for a living, her plan is to return to Baneberry to renovate the Vermont "house of horrors" and list it for sale.  As Maggie settles in, almost immediately, strange and frightening things begin to occur and, the more that happens, the more she begins to realize what her father wrote about the house is now true.

I really loved this book; it's so well crafted. The style alternates between chapters written by her father in "The House of Horrors" and the present day as Maggie works on restoring the house and tries to uncover its dark past.  Home Before Dark is a creepy, page-turning delight. Read it!

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Home Before Dark; Riley Sager


Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, now hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews. Each week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book they are reading or that they plan to read soon.

Home Before Dark; Riley Sager
Dutton - 2020

PROLOGUE

July 1

"DADDY, YOU NEED TO CHECK FOR GHOSTS."

I paused in the doorway of my daughter's bedroom, startled in the way that all parents get when their child says something confounding.  Since Maggie was five, I suppose I should have been used to it.  I wasn't. Especially with a request so unexpectedly odd.

"I do?"

"Yes, Maggie said, insistent. I don't want them in my room."

What do you think, pass or read more?

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Lock Every Door; Riley Sager


AUTHOR:  Riley Sager
PUBLISHER: Dutton
PUB. YEAR: 2019
SETTING: New York City
FORMAT:  eGalley
RATING - 4/5

Jules Larsen is a young woman who is down on her luck.  Her parents have died, her sister disappeared, she's lost her job and is about to be homeless after moving out of her cheating boyfriend's apartment. Can things get any worse for her ?-- (oh, yes, definitely.)

Desperate for cash, she learns of a job as a apartment sitter at the swanky Bartholomew in Manhattan. It's a job that pays $12,000 for a 3-month commitment. She applies and is hired but, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is as Jules quickly learns.

It isn't long before Jules begins to learn about the Bartholomew's mysterious past. Then there are the odd and very strict rules that she and the other apartment sitter's must adhere to. Jules befriends Ingrid, another sitter, and is warned by her that she must be careful because bad things that have occurred in the building.  Almost immediately after warning Jules, Ingrid goes missing in the middle of the night. Jules feels compelled to investigate what happened to her and learning she wasn't the first sitter to disappear from the Bartholomew. It's a race against the clock for Jules who realizes that she must find away to leave the job before it's too late.

The story begins with the "NOW" with Jules on a stretcher after she's been hit by a car.  The story is well-paced going back from the present to what transpired in the six days prior. There are several odd characters, I thought some felt rather flat but, I did like that it was hard to tell who could be trusted.  The story slowed a little early on but, it did hold my interest and it ended with a twist I never anticipated. Overall, a pretty darn good creepy read.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Lock Every Door; Riley Sager



Each Tuesday, Vicki, from I’d Rather Be At The Beach hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where readers post the opening paragraph(s) of a book that they are reading or plan to read. 
(I started this one last night and I'm really enjoying it so far.)

Lock Every Door; Riley Sager
Dutton - 2019

NOW

Light slices the darkness, jerking me awake.

My right eye--someone's prying it open. Latex-gloved fingers parting the lids, yanking on them like they're stubborn window shades.

There's more light now, Harsh. Painfully bright. A penlight aimed at my pupil.

The same is done to my left eye. Pry, Part, Light.

The fingers release my lids, and I'm plunged back into darkness.

Someone speaks. A man with a gentle voice, "Can you hear me?"

I open my mouth, and hot pain circles my jaw. Stray bolts of it jab my neck and cheek.....

What do you think? Read more or pass?
(The intro is rather long so I only included part of it)








Tuesday, December 12, 2017

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Turtles All the Way Down; John Green


Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros sharing the first paragraph, maybe two, of a book that I'm reading or plan to read soon.  


Dutton Books - 2017

One

"AT THE TIME I FIRST REALIZED I might be fictionl, my weekdays were spent at a publicly funded institution on the north side of Indianapolis called White River High School, where I was required to eat lunch at a particular time--between 12:37p.m. and 1:14p.m.--by forces so much larger than myself that I couldn't even begin to identify them.  If those forces had given me a different lunch period, or if the tablemates who helped author my fate had chosen a different topic of conversation that September day, I would've met a different end--or at least a different middle.  But I was beginning to learn that your life is a story told about you, not one that you tell."

Based on that intro, would you read more or pass?  Feel free to join us by posting your own INTRO and linking below.


Sunday, April 24, 2016

Fool Me Once; Harlan Coben

Fool Me Once; Harlan Coben
Brilliant Audio - 2016

In this stand alone Coben thriller Maya Stern is a former Special Ops pilot suffering from PTSD.  She is also a grieving widow, her husband Joe was brutally murdered a few weeks earlier.  To ease her stress where her two-year old daughter is concerned, she discreetly installs a nanny cam to monitor the happenings of her daughter and the caregiver while she is away.  Soon after Maya sees what appears to be her dead husband sitting on the sofa with their daughter.  Are her eyes playing tricks on her or, is Joe still alive? After all, she never saw his body after he was supposedly murdered.

Fool Me Once was a very good thriller that held my interest all the way to the end, and it even managed to surprise me.  Maya is a spunky character who was fearless and determined to find out what was really going on.  The audio version was read by January LaVoy who did a very good job. I also had the eGalley so I was able to read as well as listen. Readers who enjoy a good thriller should give this one a try.

4/5 stars
(library audio & eGalley)


Friday, April 1, 2016

Find Her; Lisa Gardner

Find Her, Lisa Gardner
Dutton - 2016

A long time Lisa Gardner fan, her latest thriller (book #8 in the Detective D.D. Warren series) was a story that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

Flora Dane is a woman who has been through hell and back but, she's a survivor. Years earlier she was kidnapped by Jacob Ness while on spring break.  He tormented and abused her while he held her captive for 472 days, spending much of her time in a coffin-sized pine box. Since her release she has spent lots of time working with an FBI victim's advocate, boning up on self defense and survivalist skills, and, a new obsession with the abductions of other young girls in the area.

Now five years after her release, a man has been found burned to death, a woman naked and bound and Boston Homicide Detective DD Warren, is wondering whether Flora is a victim or a vigilante.  The next day when Flora goes missing and in her apartment they find a wall covered with the pictures of missing girls, the detective is not sure what to think.

The story is told from the first person POV of Flora and the third person POV of Detective Warren.  Flora is a fantastic character. She's smart, attractive and emotionally scarred.  She does some incredibly risky things along the way.  The kidnapper is beyond creepy -- appearing normal to attract the victims and then crazed and deranged once he has his prey. This book is definitely not for the faint of heart. Very graphic and according to my husband caused me to yell out in my sleep a few nights as I read this one before bed.  

(You could read this one alone but, would recommend the entire series.)

4.5/5 stars
(eGalley)

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You - 3 new titles that caught my eye


(3) coming soon titles that caught my eye.

William Morrow - March - 2016

(Amazon Description)
A chilling and spooky Gothic historical thriller reminiscent of Rebecca and The Turn of the Screw, dripping with the dark twists and eerie surprises that are the hallmarks of Edgar Allan Poe, from the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Citadel.
In a remote village near the English coast, residents gather in a misty churchyard. More than a decade into the twentieth century, superstition still holds sway: It is St. Mark’s Eve, the night when the shimmering ghosts of those fated to die in the coming year are said to materialize and amble through the church doors.
Alone in the crowd is Constantia Gifford, the taxidermist’s daughter. Twenty-two and unmarried, she lives with her father on the fringes of town, in a decaying mansion cluttered with the remains of his once world-famous museum of taxidermy. No one speaks of why the museum was shuttered or how the Giffords fell so low. Connie herself has no recollection—a childhood accident has erased all memory of her earlier days. Even those who might have answers remain silent. The locals shun Blackthorn House, and the strange spinster who practices her father’s macabre art.
As the last peal of the midnight bell fades to silence, a woman is found dead—a stranger Connie noticed near the church. In the coming days, snippets of long lost memories will begin to tease through Connie’s mind, offering her glimpses of her vanished years. Who is the victim, and why has her death affected Connie so deeply? Why is she watched by a mysterious figure who has suddenly appeared on the marsh nearby? Is her father trying to protect her with his silence—or someone else? The answers are tied to a dark secret that lies at the heart of Blackthorn House, hidden among the bell jars of her father’s workshop—a mystery that draws Connie closer to danger . . . closer to madness . . . closer to the startling truth.


Miller's Valley; Anna QUindlen
April - 2016 - Random House


(Amazon Description)

In a small town on the verge of big change, a young woman unearths deep secrets about her family and unexpected truths about herself. Filled with insights that are the hallmark of Anna Quindlen’s bestsellers, Miller’s Valleyis an emotionally powerful story about a family you will never forget.
 
For generations the Millers have lived in Miller’s Valley. Mimi Miller tells about her life with intimacy and honesty. As Mimi eavesdrops on her parents and quietly observes the people around her, she discovers more and more about the toxicity of family secrets, the dangers of gossip, the flaws of marriage, the inequalities of friendship and the risks of passion, loyalty, and love. Home, as Mimi begins to realize, can be “a place where it’s just as easy to feel lost as it is to feel content.” 
 
Miller’s Valley is a masterly study of family, memory, loss, and, ultimately, discovery, of finding true identity and a new vision of home. As Mimi says, “No one ever leaves the town where they grew up, even if they go.” Miller’s Valley reminds us that the place where you grew up can disappear, and the people in it too, but all will live on in your heart forever.

Fool Me Once; Harlen Coben
Dutton - March 2016

(Amazon Description)

Former special ops pilot Maya, home from the war, sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe—who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier. The provocative question at the heart of the mystery: Can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to? To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband—and herself.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Week in Review and New Books

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day and (-8 degrees) with the wind chill factor this morning. Needless to say, we won't be venturing outdoors this Sunday.  The good news is this is the last cold day and it might be 50 on Wednesday. Talk about crazy weather.  This week flew by and I am pleased to report my cold is pretty much gone (passed it on to my husband).


This week we went to the movies to see The Finest Hours which was very enjoyable.  It's based on a true story, a Coast Guard rescue movie, set on Cape Cod during a hurricane in 1951.

I stayed indoors most of the week and that resulted in a busy reading, reviewing and blogging week.  Here is a recap of books read and/or reviewed.

    
    I'm in the process of rereading, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath for my book group meeting at the end of the month. It's a great read and I am enjoying it since it's been over 15 years since I last read it.  I'm also reading, Eleanor by Jason Gurley and, I also finished reading a quick debut novel called, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad (no review yet).

New Book Arrivals by Mail




    Nothing special for today except planning a shrimp dish for dinner and making some warm soup as well.  I also think I'll reorganize a closet that was bugging me a bit yesterday:)

Hope Your Day is Special!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Coming Soon to a Book Store Near You - 3 NEW Thrillers


 Winter is always a great time to cozy with an exciting thriller. Here are some new ones coming out next month from some favorite author.

Find Her; Lisa Gardner
Dutton - February - 2016

(Description from Amazon)

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 rhythms of normal life, working with her FBI victim advocate, Samuel Keynes. She has a mother who’s never stopped loving her, a brother who is scared of the person she’s become, and a bedroom wall covered with photos of other girls who’ve never made it home.

Flora Dane is reckless. 

. . . or is she? When Boston detective D. D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime—a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him—she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante? And with her firsthand knowledge of criminal behavior, could she hold the key to rescuing a missing college student whose abduction has rocked Boston? When Flora herself disappears, D.D. realizes a far more sinister predator is out there. One who’s determined that this time, Flora Dane will never escape. And now it is all up to D. D. Warren to find her.

She's Not There; Joy Fielding
Ballantine - February 2016
(Description from Amazon)


A vanished child, a family in turmoil, and a fateful phone call that brings the torments of the past into the harrowing present . . . the New York Times bestselling author of Someone Is Watchingweaves these spellbinding elements into a gripping novel of psychological suspense—a must-read for fans of Laura Lippman and Mary Higgins Clark.
 
“I think my real name is Samantha. I think I’m your daughter.”
 
Caroline Shipley’s heart nearly stops when she hears those words from the voice on the other end of the phone. Instantly, she’s thrust fifteen years into the past, to a posh resort in Baja, Mexico—and the fateful night her world collapsed.
 
The trip is supposed to be a celebration. Caroline’s husband, Hunter, convinces her to leave their two young daughters, Michelle and Samantha, alone in their hotel suite while the couple enjoys an anniversary dinner in the restaurant downstairs. But returning afterward, Caroline and Hunter make a horrifying discovery: Two-year-old Samantha has vanished without a trace.
 
What follows are days, weeks, and years of anguish for Caroline. She’s tormented by media attention that has branded her a cold, incompetent mother, while she struggles to save her marriage. Caroline also has to deal with the demands of her needy elder daughter, Michelle, who is driven to cope in dangerous ways. Through it all, Caroline desperately clings to the hope that Samantha will someday be found—only to be stung again and again by cruel reality.
 
Plunged back into the still-raw heartbreak of her daughter’s disappearance, and the suspicions and inconsistencies surrounding a case long gone cold, Caroline doesn’t know whom or what to believe. The only thing she can be sure of is that someone is fiercely determined to hide the truth of what happened to Samantha.


He Will Be My Ruin; K.A. Tucker
Atria - February - 2016

(Description from Amazon)

“A nail-biting thriller...clever twists and turns will keep readers in suspense, and just when they think they have figured out what happened to Celine, the story veers in another direction.”—Publishers Weekly

The USA TODAY bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water series makes her suspense debut with this sexy, heartpounding story of a young woman determined to find justice after her best friend’s death, a story pulsing with the “intense, hot, emotional” (Colleen Hoover) writing that exhilarates her legions of fans.

A woman who almost had it all . . .

On the surface, Celine Gonzalez had everything a twenty-eight-year-old woman could want: a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a job that (mostly) paid the bills, and an acceptance letter to the prestigious Hollingsworth Institute of Art, where she would finally live out her dream of becoming an antiques appraiser for a major auction house. All she had worked so hard to achieve was finally within her reach. So why would she kill herself?

A man who was supposed to be her salvation . . .

Maggie Sparkes arrives in New York City to pack up what’s left of her best friend’s belongings after a suicide that has left everyone stunned. The police have deemed the evidence conclusive: Celine got into bed, downed a lethal cocktail of pills and vodka, and never woke up. But when Maggie discovers a scandalous photograph in a lock box hidden in Celine’s apartment, she begins asking questions. Questions about the man Celine fell in love with. The man she never told anyone about, not even Maggie. The man Celine believed would change her life.

Until he became her ruin. 


On the hunt for evidence that will force the police to reopen the case, Maggie uncovers more than she bargained for about Celine’s private life—and inadvertently puts herself on the radar of a killer. A killer who will stop at nothing to keep his crimes undiscovered.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Remarkable Creatures; Tracy Chevalier


Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where I share the first paragraph sometimes two from a book I am reading or thinking about reading soon. (This one is my book group pick)

Remarkable Creatures; Tracy Chevalier
Dutton - 2010

"Lightning as struck me all my life. Just once was it real. I shouldn't remember it, for I was more than a baby.  But I do remember.  I was in a field, where there were horses and riders performing tricks.  Then a storm blew in, and a woman--not Mam--picked me up and brought me under a tree.  As she held me tight I looked up and saw the pattern of black leaves against the white sky.

Then there was a big noise, like all trees falling down round me, and a bright, bright light, which was like looking at the sun.  A buzz run right through me.  It was as if I'd touched a hot coal, and I could smell singed flesh and sense there was pain, yet it weren't painful.  I felt like a stocking turned inside out."

What do you think -- keep reading or pass? 
(Feel free to join in this week by posting your intro below?