Monday, February 10, 2020

Seasons

My life has been in a bit of an upheaval for the past few months, so I have not written anything.  I have missed blog tour dates and for that I am very sorry.  Sometimes the blanket of life just gets far too heavy, and the smallest of tasks seem insurmountable.  As a child and young adult, I feared change.  Not just feared it - it terrified me to the point of inertia.  I wouldn't make even necessary changes that were vital to my happiness.  Bad boyfriend, bad job, bad living situation?  Better than facing the mountain of doubt and worry ahead of me in order to have something better.  Then there are the constant what-if's...what if it's worse?  What if I regret the decisions and changes I have made?  Conversely, even worse than fear for me is hope.  Hope is terrifying, because it can be squashed.  Opening yourself up to possibilities and hope also means opening yourself up to possible rejection.

After facing so many tumultuous changes that I both could and could not control, I will try my hardest to no longer fear change. Change is what the world is, what keeps us moving.  Seasons change, we all grow up and then grow old, fruit turns to rot, love is lost and broken.  These changes also mean fresh beginnings, and chance for your life to be clean and new, like your notebook on the first day of class.  Instead of fearing change, I will embrace it.  I will dig my toes in the sand whenever I can, I will eat any good food that is handed to me, I will open my heart to new beginnings.

In that vein, my reading material has been slightly different these past few weeks.  I may be feeling a little tender, a little emotionally sunburnt, and a bit weepy. Of course, there's still been my murder books too.


"Creatures" by Crissy Van Meter - ❤❤❤❤❤

After reading a beautiful original essay for Powell's by Crissy Van Meter, I immediately added her debut novel, Creatures, to my library hold list.  I am not even completely finished with this book yet, and I am reviewing it at 5 stars.  This is a testament to what a beautiful, heart-wrenching read this is. It's written in a fresh, absorbing style and touches on family, love, and loss.  The setting is beautiful, and the facts about marine life that are interspersed throughout the book are thought-provoking and relate directly to the story.  I gather from the above-mentioned essay that this book was based, however loosely, on the author's own experiences growing up.  That shines through in the authenticity of the story, the likability of even the broken, flawed characters, and the familiarity with the remote lifestyle of an island dweller.  I can't even think of a book to compare this to, but I absolutely love it.  Read it if you're a person, you'll love it too.


"No Bad Deed" by Heather Chavez - ❤❤❤❤❤

Wow! Two five-star reviews in one entry.  I am pretty stingy with my 5's, so this is a rarity.  As is finding another debut author that absolutely knocked my socks off.  However, Heather Chavez has done just that.  I am sockless.  She wove such an intense, twisty tale that I couldn't put it down.  Very evocative of Lisa Gardner and her ilk, this was a "make you hide in the bathroom for one more chapter" book.  I wanted to lay down and devour it, but work had to be done.  Even so, I flew through it in 2 days (slow for me, but needs must).  I never wanted it to end, but I couldn't wait to find out what was really going on.  I immediately took to Goodreads and posted the following review:

I received an ARC of this title from William Morrow and Netgalley. My thoughts are my own.

HOLY COW. My heart is still pounding so hard after finishing this I wonder if I need to wait to write my review. I might need to calm down a little bit. But no - I need to tell everyone right this instant how explosively amazing this book was. First of all, when Lisa Gardner says to read a book, I read that book. No questions asked. I would be very surprised if all your friends aren't talking about this one soon. Easily one of the best books I have read in a long time, this was one of those that has you sneaking off to read just one more chapter. Heck, just one more paragraph.

A little synopsis...on a dark night, Cassie is driving home and sees a man assaulting a woman. Despite her better judgment, she gets out of the car and intervenes, saving the woman's life but earning a threat from the man that her life is going to fall apart as a result. Shortly after, Cassie's husband Sam disappears, and she wonders if he's having an affair. The reality of the situation is so much deeper and more complex than that, as you'll learn as the story unwinds. There's SO much going on here, and it could have been messy and disjointed in a less skilled writer's hands. Chavez manages to tie every piece together in an engaging, engrossing way that makes it impossible to put down. I was not bored for a second, and this was not a predictable, boilerplate thriller. 5 stars!!!


So, in short, PRE-ORDER THIS BOOK!!! You won't be sorry.  I feel so honored that I was able to read it pre-release, and even more honored that the author herself responded to the bookstagram I posted.

Publication date - February 18, 2020.  Pre-order now at Powell's.


Some galleys I can't wait to read!



 


"Little Secrets" by Jennifer Hillier - Release date 4/21/2020
From the author of Jar of Hearts, a mother driven to the edge by the disappearance of her son learns her husband is having an affair with the woman who might have kidnapped him.
Four hundred and eighty seconds. That's how long it took for someone to steal Marin Machado's four-year-old son.
Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They're admired in their community and are a loving family. Up until the day Sebastian is taken.
A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. The only thing keeping her going is the unlikely chance that one day Sebastian reappears. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding him, she discovers that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman.
Kenzie Li is an artist and grad student--Instagram famous--and up to her eyeballs in debt. She knows Derek is married. She also knows he's rich, and dating him comes with perks: help with bills, trips away, expensive gifts. He isn't her first rich boyfriend, but she finds herself hoping he'll be the last. She's falling for him--and that was never part of the plan.
Discovery of the affair sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. But as she sets a plan in motion, another revelation surfaces. Derek's lover might know what happened to their son. And so might Derek.
"Remain Silent" by Susie Steiner (DS Manon Bradshaw #3) - Release date 6/2/2020

An immigrant’s mysterious death sets off a chilling hunt for the truth in this gripping crime novel from the author of Missing, Presumed, featuring a “delightful protagonist who deserves a place alongside other beloved literary detectives” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

Newly married and navigating life with a preschooler as well as her adopted adolescent son, Manon Bradshaw is happy to be working part-time in the cold cases department of the Cambridgeshire police force, a job that allows her to potter in, coffee in hand, and log on for a spot of Internet shopping—precisely what she had in mind when she thought of work-life balance. But beneath the surface Manon is struggling with the day-to-day realities of what she’d assumed would be domestic bliss: fights about whose turn it is to clean the kitchen, the bewildering fatigue of having a young child while in her forties, and the fact that she is going to couples counseling alone because her husband feels it would just be her complaining.

But when Manon is on a walk with her four-year-old son in a peaceful suburban neighborhood and discovers the body of a Lithuanian immigrant hanging from a tree with a mysterious note attached, she knows her life is about to change. Suddenly, she is back on the job full-force, trying to solve the suicide—or is it a murder—in what may be the most dangerous and demanding case of her life.


"Pretty Things: A Novel" by Janelle Brown - Release date 4/21/2020


Two wildly different women--one a grifter, the other an heiress--are brought together by the scam of a lifetime in a page-turner from the New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear.

"Pretty Things is awesome. Simple as that. I loved every page. Janelle Brown is your new must-read author."--Harlan Coben, New York Times bestselling author of Run Away

Nina once bought into the idea that her fancy liberal arts degree would lead to a fulfilling career. When that dream crashed, she turned to stealing from rich kids in L.A. alongside her wily Irish boyfriend, Lachlan. Nina learned from the best: Her mother was the original con artist, hustling to give her daughter a decent childhood despite their wayward life. But when her mom gets sick, Nina puts everything on the line to help her, even if it means running her most audacious, dangerous scam yet.
Vanessa is a privileged young heiress who wanted to make her mark in the world. Instead she becomes an Instagram influencer--traveling the globe, receiving free clothes and products, and posing for pictures in exotic locales. But behind the covetable facade is a life marked by tragedy. After a broken engagement, Vanessa retreats to her family's sprawling mountain estate, Stonehaven: a mansion of dark secrets not just from Vanessa's past, but from that of a lost and troubled girl named Nina.
Nina's, Vanessa's, and Lachlan's paths collide here, on the cold shores of Lake Tahoe, where their intertwined lives give way to a winter of aspiration and desire, duplicity and revenge.
This dazzling, twisty, mesmerizing novel showcases acclaimed author Janelle Brown at her best, as two brilliant, damaged women try to survive the greatest game of deceit and destruction they will ever play.
"Something She's Not Telling Us" by Darcey Bell - Release date 4/7/2020

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Simple Favor comes an electrifying domestic thriller of how one woman’s life is turned upside down when her brother brings his new girlfriend to visit—and no one is telling the truth about who they really are.
She’s on the verge of having it all…
But one woman stands in her way.
Charlotte has everything in life that she ever could have hoped for: a doting, artistic husband, a small-but-thriving flower shop, and her sweet, smart five-year-old daughter, Daisy. Her relationship with her mother might be strained, but the distance between them helps. And her younger brother Rocco may have horrible taste in women, but when he introduces his new girlfriend to Charlotte and her family, they are cautiously optimistic that she could be The One. Daisy seems to love Ruth, and she can’t be any worse than the klepto Rocco brought home the last time. At least, that’s what Charlotte keeps telling herself. But as Rocco and Ruth’s relationship becomes more serious, Ruth’s apparent obsession with Daisy grows more obvious. Then Daisy is kidnapped, and Charlotte is convinced there’s only one person who could have taken her.
Ruth has never had much, but now she’s finally on the verge of having everything she’s ever dreamed of. A stable job at a start-up company, a rakish, handsome boyfriend with whom she falls more in love with every day—and a chance at the happy family she’s always wanted, adorable niece included. The only obstacle standing in her way is her boyfriend’s sister Charlotte, whose attitude swerves between politely cold and outright hostile. Rebuffing Ruth’s every attempt to build a friendship with her and Daisy, Charlotte watches over her daughter with a desperate protectiveness that sends chills down Ruth’s spine. Ruth knows that Charlotte has a deeply-buried secret, the only question is: what? A surprise outing with Daisy could be the key to finding out, and Ruth knows she must take the chance while she has it—for everyone’s sake.
As the two women follow each other down a chilling rabbit hole, unearthing winding paths of deceit, lies, and trauma, a family and a future will be completely—and irrevocably—shattered.
From its very first page, Something She’s Not Telling Us takes hold of readers’ imagination in a harrowing, unforgettable thriller that dives deep into the domestic psyche and asks the question:
Is anyone ever really who they say they are…?
🖤 Until next time - Lesley xo

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Seasons

My life has been in a bit of an upheaval for the past few months, so I have not written anything.  I have missed blog tour dates and for th...