🟣 :::READING THREAD::: Week of August 4th

I read Husbands and Lovers by Beatriz Williams. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I was so happy to read a good page turner.
New England 2022. Three years ago, single mother Mallory Dunne received the telephone call every parent dreads-her ten-year old son, Sam, was airlifted from summer camp with acute poisoning from a toxic death cap mushroom, leaving him fighting for his life. Now, searching for the donor kidney that will give her son a chance for a normal life. Mallory's forced to confront two harrowing secrets from her past: her mother's adoption from an infamous Irish orphanage in 1952, and her own all-consuming summer romance fourteen years earlier with her childhood best friend, Monk Adams, now one of the world's most beloved singer-songwriters.
Egypt, 1951. After suffering tragedy beyond comprehension in the war, Hungarian refugee Hannah Ainsworth has forged a respectable new life for herself-marriage to a wealthy British diplomat with a coveted posting in glamorous Cairo. But a fateful encounter with the enigmatic manager of a hotel bristling with spies leads to a passionate affair that will reawaken Hannah's longing for everything she once lost. As revolution simmers in the Egyptian streets, a pregnant Hannah finds herself snared in a game of intrigue between two men...and an act of sacrifice that will echo down the generations.

I've read three recently. I think I skipped last week's thread because we had two weeks of constant visitors and I spent most of that time playing tourist with them, or recuperating from playing tourist in the heat. 

1. I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue. In one of these reading threads not too long ago someone mentioned the book "Better Left Unsent". It sounded good so I put a hold on it, and then my library offered this book by Sue "while you wait". It's about a woman who works in a soul-sapping office environment. So she takes out her feelings on the other people by adding addendums to her emails to tell them exactly what she thinks... But she changes the font color on the added parts to white so no one can read them. Then one day she forgets to do that... And then while being disciplined for that she accidentally gets admin privileges to everyone's emails and ends up being able to read everything. It goes downhill then uphill from there. I really liked this one, and the ending is very satisfying.

2. James by Percival Everett. This is the Huckleberry Finn story but told from the point of view of Jim. With some changes to the story, of course. I LOVED this one! I won't give spoilers...but I just loved the twist, and the idea that the slaves were pulling the wool over the slaver owners eyes. Very sad in parts, as we would expect any book about slavery to be. 

3. Just finishing Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Again. I just love this book. Especially the parts when the main character gets her dragon, and their relationship. 

I read Friends With Secrets and I liked it at first, but then some of the things that happened just weren't realistic.

I started one and DNF'd it. I had company and didn't get in as much reading as I normally do.

I did finish The Briar Club. My fave Kate Quinn book is The Alice Network. This might be a close second. The concept was very strong. What a great cast of characters and an amazing plot! Loved the different perspectives. The ending was perfect. An exceptional book. Based on true events. 5/5 stars. One of my favorite reads this year.

Currently reading A Talent for Murder. It's great so far.

Lisa

I just finished Last Night at Villa Lucia by Simon McCleave.He's one of my favorite authors and I love his Snowdonia murder mystery series which follows a London cop who has joined the North Wales police force. I think there are 18 books in the series and you can get them on Kindle Unlimited.

Here's a synopsis of the book. I gave it 4/5 stars.

Recently divorced Cerys thought buying a luxury Tuscan villa would be the fresh start she so desperately needed. But a year later, she's struggling to move on from the pain of her past. Determined to make Villa Lucia a success, she's pinned all her hopes on this season's guests. Until one of them is found murdered in the villa's infinity pool.

Now, as the police descend on the property, the secrets of her guests begin to unravel, and Cerys is forced to confront her own demons. But can she uncover the truth about that fateful night before the paradise she’s built shatters around her?

I’m a big Alex Kava fan !  Especially the Ryder Creed 8-book series.  

I’ve also read 7 books in the Maggie O’Dell series (Stranded #11 ‘13, Hotwire #9 ‘11, Black Friday #7 ‘09, Exposed #6 ‘08, A Necessary Evil #5 ‘06, At The Stroke of Madness #4 ‘03 & A Perfect Evil #1 ‘00).
Plus a stand-a-lone novel, Whitewash ‘07. All were great reads !

I get a Christmas card from Alex every year.  

I had forgotten I read this. But yes! I loved it too and gave it 4.5/5 stars. 

Lisa 

CONFESSIONS OF THE DEAD (‘24 - 3 STARS) BY JD BARKER & JAMES PATTERSON
DESCRIPTION : The dead tell no tales…unless they swam in Cemetery Lake.
 Hollows Bend, New Hampshire, is a picture-perfect New England town where weekend tourists flock to see fall leaves and eat breakfast at the Stairway Diner. The crime rate—zero--is a point of pride for Sheriff Ellie Pritchett. The day the stranger shows up is when the trouble starts. The sheriff and her deputy investigate the mysterious teenage girl. None of the locals can place her. She can’t—or won’t answer any questions. She won’t even tell them her name. While the girl is in protective custody, the officers are called to multiple crime scenes leading them closer and closer to a lake outside of town that doesn’t appear on any map… 

REVIEW :

Previous books by only this author, JD Barker, for me were Behind a Closed Door (‘24 - 3 Stars), A Caller’s Game (‘21 - 5 Stars) and The 4MK Thriller 3-Book Series : The Fourth Monkey (‘17), The Fifth to Die (‘18) and The Sixth Wicked Child (‘19) all 5 STARS.

Books written with James Patterson were Death of the Black Widow (‘22 - 2 Stars), The Noise (‘21 - 3 Stars), The Coast-to-Coast Murders (‘20 - 4 Stars). I definitely think Mr. Barker’s own plots/storylines are so much better than the ones he writes with Mr. Patterson.

I’m a little worried about reading this book since the reviews are all over the charts. At 20% I don’t believe Patterson had anything to do with this book. It has JD Barker’s great writing skills all over it. I hope this eerie, scary tale continues thru the whole book. There are quite a few characters but I didn’t find it difficult to keep track of them since there were only a few “main” characters and the additional “side” characters each kind of had their own storylines. A town fighting an unknown enemy. Definitely a horror thriller so I wasn’t expecting much of an ending AND I was correct. Overall I loved all the eeriness but I thought the whole book could have been cut by 100 pages; it was 450+ pages.



WHAT HAVE YOU DONE (‘24 - 3 STARS) BY SHARI LAPENA
DESCRIPTION : Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont. The teenagers get their kicks telling ghost stories in the old graveyard. The parents trust their kids will arrive home safe from school. Everyone knows everyone. Curtains rarely twitch. Front doors are left unlocked. But this morning all of that will change. Because Diana Brewer isn’t lying safely in her bed where she belongs. Instead she lies in a hayfield, circled by vultures, discovered by a local farmer.  How quickly a girl becomes a ghost. How quickly a town of friendly, familiar faces becomes a town of suspects, a place of fear and paranoia. Someone in Fairhill did this. Everyone wants answers. And one innocent question could be deadly.

REVIEW :

Shari Lapena is one of my favorite authors. The last 6/7 books have been 4 stars with only one 3-star review. Prior books by this author for me were Everyone Here is Lying (‘23 - 4 Stars), Not A Happy Family (‘21 - 4 Stars), The End of Her ('20 - 4 Stars), Someone We Knew (‘19 - 4 Stars), An Unwanted Guest ('18 - 3 Stars), A Stranger in the House ('17 - 4 Stars) and The Couple Next Door (‘16 - Read ‘17 - 4 Stars).

Shari’s writing always moves the story along. But I have to say, at 40% I’m a little bored but I did press-on. I did enjoy the “ghost” aspect of the victim being involved throughout the book. Everyone is hiding something. Solid, quick read but definitely would not call it a “thriller”.



HAPPY READING !

My daughter just texted me yesterday to recommend "The God of the Woods". lol. I was thinking that I cannot get another book to read right now because I have two long ones on my Kindle ("The Briar Club" and "The Women") plus others from the library, and a long hold list. However... I'm #265 on the waiting list so I won't be getting it immediately. lol

Sounds like I may need to keep notes on this one! That’s the one thing I dislike about audiobooks…it’s not easy to flip pages back for reference. 🫤