SOLD ON A MONDAY by Kristina McMorris

September 3, 2018

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From the publisher:

From New York Times bestselling author Kristina McMorris comes another unforgettable novel inspired by a stunning piece of history. 

2 CHILDREN FOR SALE

The sign is a last resort. It sits on a farmhouse porch in 1931, but could be found anywhere in an era of breadlines, bank runs and broken dreams. It could have been written by any mother facing impossible choices.

For struggling reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his family’s dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for publication. But when it leads to his big break, the consequences are more devastating than he ever imagined.

At the paper, Lillian Palmer is haunted by her role in all that happened. She is far too familiar with the heartbreak of children deemed unwanted. As the bonds of motherhood are tested, she and Ellis must decide how much they are willing to risk to mend a fractured family.

Inspired by an actual newspaper photograph that stunned the nation, Sold on a Monday is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and the unexpected paths that bring us home.

I read about this book and thought it might make for a good book discussion, except that while based on an actual photograph (right) that was taken in 1948, the author changed the time frame to more than a decade earlier, at the height of the depression. I understand that she was inspired by the photo to write fiction, and her notes in the back of the book make it very clear how and why she changed it, but to me it lessened the impact of the story.

I would have appreciated more character development. The main characters were fully realized, but I didn’t really understand many of the secondary characters and their motivations and I would have liked to. The back stories on most of the characters were merely eluded to or glossed over and could have used some fleshing out.

The time period was interesting for sure, especially because it seems like most of the books set in the late 40’s deal with the aftermath of the war, and this really didn’t.  I liked the newsroom setting and the interactions of the reporters, and especially the hierarchy of the organizations. The culture of the time was also very well done and enlightening. Despite a few misgivings, it was a compelling and interesting read.

9/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

SOLD ON A MONDAY by Kristina McMorris. Sourcebooks Landmark (August 28, 2018). ISBN 978-1492663997. 352p.

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OSLO SPIES by S J Slagle

September 2, 2018

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Phyllis Bowden Series, Book 2

The second book featuring  Phyllis Bowden, a young woman working for military intelligence during the final days of World War II.  She had been assigned to the office in London but the opening of this book finds her transferred to Oslo, Norway as aide to the Military Attache in the American Embassy.  She is tasked with finding families of Norwegians killed by the Nazis and notifying these relatives in order to help them find closure with the knowledge. She also handles work as assigned by the Attache.

The love of her life, Joe Schneider, briefly visits her in Oslo before leaving on an assignment to Romania. He works as an agent for England’s MI5 and is searching for an object that his office deems necessary to close several problem areas. But while in Oslo Joe and Peggy become engaged to be married as soon as possible.

While Joe is away in Romania, Peggy literally finds a little girl of about five adrift on the streets and takes her in as a means of providing care. Even at the child’s young age she is technically branded a traitor due to her father being a Nazi officer living with a Norwegian woman. It also develops that her German father gave the girl a doll before he left Norway containing secret information that both England and Russia are anxious to obtain.

Slagle manages to set up the chaotic situation existing in Norway after being held by Germany for five years. Goods and services are scarce and only available through donations by friendly countries or sold in near by Sweden neutral during the period described. The little girl becomes the key to resolution of finding the information secreted in her doll which she lost as she fled with her mother. And the next book in the series is neatly set up by the ending of this one so that Oslo Spies becomes a well done stand alone novel.

8/18 Paul Lane

OSLO SPIES by S J Slagle. Independently Published.  ISBN 978-1370291908. 350p.

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Win the September ’18 bookshelf of signed thrillers!

September 1, 2018

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Welcome to the September bookshelf of signed thrillers! Lots of terrific books to win this month from bestsellers to debuts. More books may be added throughout the month, so check back often.

To enter, go to the Win Books page.

Best of luck!

TRUST ME by Hank Phillippi Ryan:  An unlikely alliance between an accused killer who swears she is innocent and a grieving journalist trying to rebuild her shattered life leads to a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.

VOX by Christina Dalcher: Marginalized in a near-future America where the government limits women to no more than 100 spoken words daily before outlawing women’s education and employment altogether, a former doctor resolves to be heard for the sake of her daughter.

A FORGOTTEN PLACE by Charles Todd: Working in an amputee clinic in Wales, Bess Crawford advocates on behalf of disabled former soldiers who endure life-risking conditions in coal mines while trying to discern the whereabouts of a missing Army captain.

ROBERT B. PARKER’S COLORBLIND by Reed Farrel Coleman: Returning after a stint in rehab, Jesse Stone finds himself investigating a series of racially motivated crimes at the same time he takes a mysterious young man named Cole Slayton as his protâegâe.

TEN AFTER CLOSING by Jessica Bayliss: Told from alternating perspectives, teenagers Scott and Winsome are thrown into circumstances that will test their limits when they’re taken hostage at gunpoint in a cafâe and must come up with an escape plan or they may not live to see morning.

UNDER A DARK SKY by Lori Rader-Day: A grieving widow tackles her phobias during a week-long stay at a dark-sky park, where a college reunion is marred by murder.

WALK A CROOKED LINE by Susan McBride:In the follow-up to the #1 Kindle bestseller Walk into Silence, a young girl takes her own life. But what—or who—drove her to it?

HUSK by Dave Zeltserman:  Charlie is a Husker on the prowl in New Hampshire when he falls in love with one of them: a girl named Jill. He leaves the cannibalistic Husk clan, but it’s more difficult and dangerous than Charlie foresees. He must find the secret to ending his terrible cravings, before it kills him and everything he has grown to love first.

POUGHKEEPSIE SHUFFLE by Dietrich Kalteis: To win over the girl of his dreams, Jeff Nichols succumbs to the lure of easy (dirty) money in this crime caper set in the 80s.

RED WAR by Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills: When the terminally ill Russian president launches a massive campaign that threatens millions of lives, Mitch Rapp is dispatched by the CIA to prevent an all-consuming war.

You can win autographed copies of these books! If you are new to the site, each month I run a contest in conjunction with the International Thriller Writers organization. We put together a list of books from debut authors to bestsellers, so you can win some of your favorites and find some new favorites.

What makes this contest really special is that all of the books (except eBooks) are signed by the author! Books with multiple authors will be signed by at least one of the authors.

Penguin Random House books for giveaway were provided by the publisher. #PRHpartner

Don’t forget, if you subscribe to the newsletter or follow this blog, you get an extra entry into every contest you enter. Check out the Win Books page for more information on all these books and how to enter this month’s contest.

Thanks for reading, and good luck!

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DIRTY DANCING AT DEVIL’S LEAP by Julie Anne Long

August 31, 2018

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Hellcat Canyon Series, Book 3

From the publisher:

One of Amazon’s Best Romances of September

A 2017 RT Reviewer’s Choice Nominee for Best Book of the Year and Reviewer’s Choice Nominee for Best Contemporary Love and Laughter

She was a naive country girl. He was a billionaire’s spoiled son. He was her first crush, her first heartbreak…and now her sworn enemy.

As Avalon Harwood’s fortunes soared, Maximilian “Mac” Coltrane’s plummeted, and he had to fight his way back to where they both began: Hellcat Canyon. Now Mac and Avalon will play dirty—in more ways than one—to get what they each want: the glorious old abandoned Coltrane mansion. But when Avalon snaps the house up at auction, she discovers there’s something awfully familiar about the extremely hot caretaker…

Mac might have a heart of stone, and the abs to match, but Avalon—the dazzling girl whose heart was always too big and too reckless for her own good—was always his Kryptonite. And just like that, the stakes change: suddenly they’re fighting not just for a house, but for a magic they tasted only once before and never since—long ago, with each other, at Devil’s Leap.

This is one of those series that I read completely out of order. I don’t even remember where I started but this is the last book that I hadn’t read so now I’m sad to say that I’m done…unless there will be another one? One can only hope!

I loved this series and the books are written in a way that you don’t have to read them in order and you still understand who these people are and what is going on, so thank you for that Julie Anne Long. Trust me, as someone who tends to read series in the order I find the books, this is a true talent.

Not only do you get a romance here, again of the childhood sweethearts are the only way to find your forever love trope, but you also get a house renovation. Fans of HGTV will enjoy that aspect as well.

Another terrific romance in a wonderful series.

8/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

DIRTY DANCING AT DEVIL’S LEAP by Julie Anne Long. Sourcebooks Landmark (June 5, 2018).  ISBN 978-1492664222. 342p.

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ONE AND ONLY by Jenny Holiday

August 30, 2018

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Bridesmaids Behaving Badly, Book 1

From the publisher:
In this “perfect rom-com” (Refinery29), USA Today bestselling author Jenny Holiday proves that when opposites attract, sparks fly.
With her bridezilla friend on a DIY project rampage, bridesmaid Jane Denning will do anything to escape – even if it means babysitting the groom’s troublemaker brother before the wedding. It should be a piece of cake, except the “cake” is a sarcastic former soldier who is 100% wicked hotness and absolutely off-limits.
Cameron MacKinnon is ready to let loose after returning from his deployment. But first he’ll have to sweet talk the ultra-responsible Jane into taking a walk on the wild side. Turns out, riling her up is the best time he’s had in years. But what happens when the fun and games start to turn into something real?
I really enjoyed the second book in this series, It Takes Two, so I was happy to find the first one at my library. They do not need to be read in order (I didn’t) but I think it helps. After reading this one a lot was clarified about the second one that I didn’t even realize I needed to know. If that makes sense?
This story centers around one of the four friends the series is based on, this time it’s Jane. She is asked to keep an eye on the groom’s wild younger brother, and she does so with some trepidation. But as she gets to know him, and he her, everything changes, even the bridezilla at the heart of the wedding part of the story.
I loved these characters and their struggles, and Cameron especially suffers. But they both get their happily ever after, and it sure is fun watching them get there.

8/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ONE AND ONLY by Jenny Holiday. Forever (June 26, 2018).  ISBN 978-1455542420. 384p.

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PIECES OF HER by Karin Slaughter

August 29, 2018

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From the publisher:

The #1 internationally bestselling author returns with a new novel in the vein of her New York Times bestsellers Pretty Girls and The Good Daughter—a story even more electrifying, provocative, and suspenseful than anything she’s written before.

What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all . . . ?

Andrea knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. Because we all know our mothers, don’t we?

But all that changes when a trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly thirty years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one would ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.

The police want answers and Laura’s innocence is on the line, but she won’t speak to anyone, including her own daughter. Andrea is on a desperate journey following the breadcrumb trail of her mother’s past. And if she can’t uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either one of them. . . .

This was so good! I made the mistake of starting it rather late in the evening and had to go to bed halfway through it. What a mistake! I kept thinking about it all night, wondering…I woke up several times and had a hard time falling back asleep. Guess I should have just gotten up and finished reading but I had to go to work in the morning so not an option.

Laura and Andrea are at the mall when a mass shooting starts. Andrea is shocked when her soccer mom of a mother calmly approaches the shooter, disarms and kills him. The suspense escalates from there and doesn’t stop. I really liked how Slaughter developed these characters and we get to watch them change and grow.  It is a breathless, twisty story that moves at breakneck pace.

This was a truly riveting read. Don’t miss it.

8/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

PIECES OF HER by Karin Slaughter. William Morrow (August 21, 2018). ISBN 978-0062430274.  480p..

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TOUGH LUCK COWBOY by A. J. Pine

August 28, 2018

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Crossroads Ranch, Book 2

Luke spotted Lily across a crowded bar and was instantly attracted. But so was his best friend, and when he moves in, Luke steps away. Things go from bad to worse when they marry a short time later. Luke is thrust into her company time and time again, and to protect himself acts like he can’t stand her. He never wanted either of them to know that he had feelings for her.

Lily ends up divorced, and thinks that Luke still hates her. But all of a sudden he is trying to protect her and that is confusing. They are forced to spend time together when she inadvertently ends up catering her ex’s wedding to a Food Network star, which could really make or break her career.

This was a good romance with some sizzling sex scenes and a lot of heart. The characters are well developed and enough of the back story is told to keep it all interesting and relevant without having had to read the previous book. But I do recommend reading it, it’s also a good read and a good introduction to the series. Another terrific cowboy romance, one of my favorite subgenres.

8/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

TOUGH LUCK COWBOY by A. J. Pine. Forever (August 28, 2018). ISBN 978-1538727102.  320p..

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THE COTTAGES ON SILVER BEACH by RaeAnne Thayne

August 27, 2018

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Haven Point, Book 8

I have seen Thayne books in the library and on romance award lists, but I’ve never read one until now. Yes, I’m starting a series with book 8. Thayne is skillful enough that I didn’t even notice.

Megan Hamilton runs an inn and lives in one of the cottages on site. Much to her chagrin, Elliot Bailey went online and rented the cabin next door to her for several weeks. There is no love lost between these two. Megan had dated his younger brother, but he was killed in an accident. Elliot was never very warm to anyone really, his nickname was Mr. Roboto.

Megan’s brother has been living under a cloud of suspicion for seven years since his wife vanished. Elliot is one of this small town’s people who believes he probably killed her, but he’s an FBI agent so he needs proof. He’s staying at the inn to finish work on his true crime book, heal up from a gunshot wound and wait out a suspension from the FBI, not even his family knows about that.

Turns out Elliot has always had a crush on Megan and she slowly thaws towards him as he is so kind and helpful. She has a lot going on in her life, not the least of which is helping her brother take care of his kids, but as long as Elliot doesn’t butt in she can handle it. And then he does.

Elliot asks his brother, the sheriff, for the file on the missing wife. Their father was sheriff when she disappeared, but he was never able to solve the case. Going through the file, Elliot finds evidence of a botched investigation and is determined to move it along. Megan isn’t very happy about that until Elliot points out that he may be able to clear her brother.

Lots of obstacles are in the way of this romance, but eventually they get there and Elliot solves the mystery of the missing wife as well. This was a sweet romance with a bit of a mystery, and should appeal to Debbie Macomber fans.

8/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE COTTAGES ON SILVER BEACH by RaeAnne Thayne. HQN; Original edition (June 19, 2018). ISBN978-1335007018. 384p.

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ALL THE WAY by Kristen Proby

August 26, 2018

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Romancing Manhattan, Book 1

From the publisher:

In New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Proby’s brand new Romancing Manhattan series, three brothers get more than they bargain for as they practice law, balance life, and navigate love in and around New York City.

Finn Cavanaugh is known for being a force to be reckoned with in the courtroom. He owns a successful law firm with his brother and brother-in-law in Manhattan. On the rare occasion that he has down time, he spends it at his home in Martha’s Vineyard. But when Finn’s troubled niece goes to stay with him for the summer in Martha’s Vineyard, he’s reluctant to take time off from work. That is, until he meets his beautiful new neighbor, London.

London Watson is a Tony Award winning actress on Broadway. When tragedy strikes her family, leaving her alone and injured, she flees Manhattan for Martha’s Vineyard. Hoping she can figure out how to pick up the pieces of her life, London is convinced that she’ll never be able to return to the stage. But when she meets the charming young girl next door and her sexy uncle, they soon lure London out of her shell as she finally begins to heal from the wounds of her past.

But when London feels confident enough to return to the spotlight, she’s dealt another devastating blow. Will the newfound love between London and Finn be enough to conquer all? Or will it be over before it has a chance to grow…?

I was surprised by how much suspense there was in this book, and it was very intriguing and enjoyable. London tragically lost her parents and her brother is the only family she has left, but he has been in and out of rehab and trouble for most of her life. Needless to say, they are not close and there is some resentment there when she inherits the bulk of their parents’ estate.
The romance, on the other hand, has its own form of suspense but it’s more of a will they or won’t they, as it should be. The characters were very well developed and the storyline completely engrossing. Highly recommended.

8/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ALL THE WAY by Kristen Proby. William Morrow Paperbacks (August 21, 2018).  ISBN 978-0062674913. 288p.

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TEMPTED BY LOVE by Jennifer Ryan

August 25, 2018

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Montana Heat, Book 3 

(or 4 if you count a novella, Protected by Love)

I really enjoy this series and this latest installment is a good, fast read.

DEA agent Jay Bennett is happy to attend his best friend’s wedding. Except his friend’s baby sister, Alina, is there and he has always been attracted to her. Now she’s no longer a baby by any stretch of the imagination, and apparently the feeling is mutual. They end up in bed together after the wedding, causing all kinds of complications in both their lives.

They try and keep their relationship to themselves, but when Alina keeps finding herself in strange, dangerous situations, her brothers, also DEA agents, and Jay spring into action. The brothers soon realize that there is more going on than they thought, and to Jay’s surprise, they don’t kill him.

There is quite a bit of suspense here, more to do with the DEA stuff than the romance, but it does kick up the tension quite a bit. This was a page turner for sure, and another fun read in the series.

8/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

TEMPTED BY LOVE by Jennifer Ryan. Avon (August 28, 2018).  ISBN 978-1335017529. 352p.

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