First line: I was very young when I was cracked open.
Summary: The Drowning Pool as it has been dubbed by the locals is where several women have been found dead. Julia has not been back to her hometown in many years and rarely spoken to her sister. However, when she gets the call that her sister, Nel, has been found in the water she has to travel back to take care of her fifteen-year-old niece, Lena. As the police look into the two most recent deaths of Nel and a young girl named Katie, they begin to discover that they might be connected.
Highlights: I listened to this as an audio book and was happy to find that many of the characters had different readers. When there are, multiple points of view listening can be very difficult. The story was suspenseful enough to keep it interesting. I liked that several different storylines were intertwined with the main plot. The chapters are nice and short which make the story move along quickly. This is a fast read and great for rainy day.
Lowlights: I felt like the ending was a little predictable. I was not 100% sure with who Nel’s killer was but it was not hard to figure out once several more pieces fell into place.
FYI: Perfect for readers of Gone Girl and The Couple Next Door.
July is more than half over, and school starts in about a month. How is summer flying by so fast? Could it be that the time I spend reading makes the days go by faster? If so, I don’t want to have to stop reading to get summer to slow down. I love finding new books to read and being one of the first patrons at the library to read a new book. And there are some great ones coming out the last two weeks of this month!
Here are a few of our picks:
“The Breakdown” is a chilling new thriller by B.A. Paris.
July 18: The Breakdown by B.A. Paris
Cass took the shortcut home, the one she promised her husband she wouldn’t. She saw a woman sitting in a car, the woman who was murdered. Now, she’s having a hard time. She’s forgetting everything: whether she took her medication, where she left the car, why she ordered a baby pram when she doesn’t even have a baby. The one thing she can’t forget? The woman who was murdered. A murder she might have been able to prevent.
July 18: The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell
Modern day New York: Magic is pretty much extinct. Pretty much, but not completely. There are a few, the Mageus, who have an affinity for magic, but must keep who they are a secret. And if any of them cross into Manhattan, they will never leave. It’s sealed by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that locks them on the island. But the Order, which created the Brink, didn’t count on Esta, a talented thief who steals magical artifacts from the Order. Esta can steal from the past, but can she steal the item she needs from 1902 before it is destroyed by the Magician?
“The Marriage Pact” by Michelle Richmond explores what happens when a young, newlywed couple join a secret group committed to making marriages last, at a significant price.
July 25: The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond
Alice is a rock-and-roller turned successful lawyer. Jake is a therapist for kids and teens and is breaking into marriage counseling. They are getting married, and Alice ends up inviting one of her clients, a famous musician, to their wedding. Finnegan invites them to join a group that promotes healthy marriages, and Jake and Alice can’t see why it wouldn’t work, as they are both wholly committed to making their marriage successful. However, The Pact has some rules and the consequences for breaking any of the rules can be pretty severe.
July 25: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
Isa spent the most significant years of her life at a boarding school near the marshes at Salten. Now she has received a simple three-word text message: I need you. Isa drops everything and, with her baby daughter, heads to Salten. Something terrible has been found on the beach, which will force Isa and her three best friends, whom she hasn’t seen in years, to confront their past.
Goodreads describes this debut novel as “‘Never Let Me Go’ meets ‘The Giver’.”
July 25: Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed
An isolated island, settled by ten men and their families just before the country was left uninhabitable by incineration. Only chosen male descendants of the original 10 colonists, known as Wanderers, are t allowed to cross to the still-smoldering wasteland. The daughters are wives-in-training. Only in the summer do the children run free, and one summer Caitlin Jacob witnesses something so terrifying and against everything she’s been taught, that she has to share it with the other children. 17-year-old Janey Solomon, who is slowly starving herself to prevent entering puberty, takes on the task of learning the truth, and encourages an uprising of the girls on the island.
Click on any of the titles above to see the book in our catalog.
“A Talent for Murder” by Andrew Wilson imagines what might have happened to Agatha Christie during her 11-day disappearance in 1926.
This book actually gets 4.5 stars from me. Click on the title above the cover to get to the book in our catalog.
First Lines: Wherever I turned my head, I thought I saw her: a woman people described as striking, beautiful even. That would never have been my choice of words.
Summary: One of Agatha Christie’s most famous mysteries has never been solved: her mysterious disappearance for 11 days in December 1926. She left her home on a Friday evening and one of the largest missing person hunts in history was launched. This novel imagines what might have happened during those days. It begins as she leaves her literary agent and is preparing to board a train in London. She feels a hand at her back that pushes her as an oncoming train is arriving, and pulls her back just before she falls in front of the train. Her rescuer, however, is no hero. Rather, he insists that she is going to commit a murder.
Highlights: I have loved Agatha Christie’s books since I first read What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw when I was in seventh grade. This book is gutsy in taking on telling a story of what may have happened to Dame Agatha during those days she was missing. The story is cleanly told, from varying points of view. Don’t gloss over the “Editor’s Note” before the first chapter, and then go back and read it again after you’ve finished the book. It will be that much more enlightening. This book has a truly vile villain, other interesting characters, and a plot line that completely works for me.
Lowlights: I had just a little difficulty getting into the first dozen pages or so. Honestly, that could have been me rather than the writing. I fully expected a Chrsitie-esque unraveling at the end of the book of how the whole story went down, but that doesn’t happen. However, that didn’t hurt the story at all for me. And there’s a little information that isn’t completely cleared up at the end, so if you like every little thing all tied up in a neat little bow, you won’t get that here.
Just a little more: This is a great imagining of what could have happened during Agatha Christie’s disappearance. I recommend it for anyone who loves a good mystery, and especially for fans of Dame Agatha. I received an advance e-copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Register for the adult reading program, log your books, and be eligible for great prizes.
Are you participating in our adult summer reading program? If not, you ought to consider it. If you think you will read four books of at least 100 pages each, sign up! You will be entered to win some great prizes with every four books you read and log. Every week there will be a randon drawing for a book bag filled with books and swag. At the end of the program, three lucky random winners will receive a new Kindle HD tablet and a $50 Amazon gift card. Click here to register and log your books through July 23.
If you are looking for some new books to read this summer (then log them as part of summer reading!), here are some new releases scheduled for the second half of June.
June 20: The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz This first book in the new Jane Hawk series promises a new series loaded with the signature suspense of Dean Koontz. Jane Hawk, the widow of a man who committed suicide, does everything in her power, despite her grief and anguish, to learn the truth behind his death. Jane’s husband was just one among a surprising number of people who are happy, talented, accomplished, and of sound mind who are killing themselves. As Jane seeks to learn why so many people are committing suicide, she becomes the most-wanted fugitive in America.
June 20: The Force by Don Winslow
A dirty cop that everyone thinks of as a hero, because he is the highly decorated leader of a special unit that has been given carte blanche to fight gangs, drugs and guns. What he really is has him caught in a trap, trying to avoid getting caught by the Feds while trying to protect his crew, his family and the woman he loves, all while the city is teetering on the brink of a disaster.
“Every Last Lie” is the newest thriller by Mary Kubica.
June 27: Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica
Clara’s husband, Nick, and daughter are in a car accident and Nick is killed. When her daughter, Maisie, starts having night terrors following the accident, Clara starts to wonder if there’s a lot more at play than a simple accident. Driven by a desire to know what really happened, Clara will stop at nothing to learn the truth in this thriller that is told in the alternating voices of Nick in the months leading up to the crash and Clara’s investigation following it.
June 27: The Impossible Vastness of Us by Samantha Young
This young adult novel explores the life and relationships of India, Eloise and Finn. India’s mom is engaged to Eloise’s father, and when India tried to befriend Eloise and become friends with Finn, it becomes apparent that what is visible to the outside world often hides the real truth.
June 27: Cocoa Beach by Beatriz Williams
A young American woman, Virginia, flees a family secret and becomes an ambulance driver in World War I France. A charming British army surgeon (Simon) pursues her, and they eventually marry. Five years later, the young widow and her daughter, the daughter whose father never met her, are in Florida to settle Simon’s estate. Simon’s brother and sister welcome Virginia to the lovely oasis of Cocoa Beach, but Virginia is determined to find out what really happened to Simon, because she is not convinced he died in the house fire that destroyed the seaside home he built for her.
“The Sisters Chase” promises a whirlwind adventure with the Chase sisters as they cross country looking for a better life.
June 27: The Sisters Chase by Sarah Healy
Mary, Hannah, and their mother Diane run a seaside motel. When Diane is killed in a car accident, the daughters find out the value of the motel is less than the back taxes they owe on it. They set out across the country in the hopes of finding a new and better life, while the secrets Hannah carries threaten an even greater loss.
Summary: When Alexandra takes a summer job in Sofia, Bulgaria she thinks that it will be the perfect way to heal the loss of her brother who disappeared on a hiking trip. But things do not turn out the way she had planned. She meets a group of three people outside a hotel but when they go their separate ways she notices that she has kept one of their bags. Inside are human ashes. With the help of the friendly taxi driver, Bobby, she is determined to find the group and return the remains. Everything is not as easy as she expected when threats and warnings start to appear as they dig deeper into whose ashes are in the urn.
Highlights: I love the pieces near the end when you get to look into the life of Stoyan Lazarov. He details his time after the war and living in Communist controlled Bulgaria. The strength that he possesses is astounding. I have read a lot about prisoners during the Holocaust and it always scares me plus amazes me the will power and strength these people have.
Lowlights: The middle is slow moving as they are traveling around Bulgaria looking for the relatives of Stoyan. It was a lot of detail gathering and talking that leads up till the ending but it got long.
FYI: Read her other book, The Historian! Amazing read. But make sure you keep the lights on.
As I was looking through the 200 most popular titles scheduled to be released in March, I realized that March 7 is a huge day for new releases! I could probably have included 30 or more titles in this post. As it was, after much searching, I was able to find two books that will be released on Marcy 14, and one book that is already out. It was released on March 1, a Wednesday, so it’s a little bit of an odd book out. So, with so many great new books that could fill your shelves, here are some titles we think deserve the buzz they are getting.
“In Farleigh Field” is a new story from Rhys Bowen.
Released March 1: “In Farleigh Field” by Rhys Bowen —
From the author of the Molly Murphy and Royal Spyness series comes a sweeping new novel of World War II. A pilot’s parachute fails and he falls to his death on the estate of Farleigh Field, the ancestral home of Lord Westerfield and his five daughters. An MI5 operative conducts an investigation into the pilot, while one of Lord Westerfield’s daughters secretly works at Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking facility.
3.99 stars on Goodreads
March 7: “Silence Fallen” by Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson #10) —
The latest installment in the Mercy Thompson series finds the coyote shapeshifter alone in the middle of Europe trying to determine who is her enemy and who is her ally. She is unable to contact the werewolf pack at home, including the pack’s alpha werewolf, Adam.
4.45 stars on Goodreads
“Etched in Bone” by Anne Bishop is No. 5 in the Others series.
March 7: “Etched in Bone” by Anne Bishop (The Others #5) —
The fifth book in The Others series by Anne Bishop continues the story of the shapeshifters, vampires and humans that inhabit the Lakeside Courtyard. After the Elders brutally put down a human uprising, the courtyard has emerged relatively unscathed, but now faces tensions and difficulties of its own when Lieutenant Montgomery’s shady brother shows up. Simon Wolfguard and blood prophet Meg Corbyn have their hands full trying to maintain peace. 4.49 stars on Goodreads
March 7: “Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid —
Two young people, Nadia and Saeed, meet in a country that is on the brink of civil war. They begin a furtive love affair and when the city explodes in violence, they decide they no longer have a choice and have to leave. They’ve heard whispers about doors that can whisk people far away, but for a price. Nadia and Saeed find a door and step through into an alien and uncertain future. 4.17 stars on Goodreads
“Never Let You Go” is a new suspense novel from Chevy Stevens.
March 14: “Never Let You Go” by Chevy Stevens —
Eleven years ago, Lindsey Nash and her daughter escaped the abusive relationship with Lindsey’s ex-husband and he was sent to jail. Lindsey and her daughter, now a teenager, have built a new life. When Lindsey learns that her ex has been released from jail, she believes all ties have been cut, but now she feels like someone is watching her. Her new boyfriend is threatened; her daughter is followed and her home is invaded. 4.26 stars on Goodreads
A new Maisie Dobbs mystery is scheduled to be released March 14.
March 14: “In This Grave Hour” by Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs #13) — It’s September 1939, and Great Britain is bracing for war with Germany. Maisie receives an assignment from Dr. Francesca Thomas to find a killer from the Great War. While Maisie is delving into that, she also has an evacuee from the current war billeted at her home in Kent.
4.32 stars on Goodreads
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
