In My Mailbox: Week of May 11 #BookHaul
Title: The Blow Off Author: Mickey J Corrigan Received: CLP Blog Tours Synopsis: One long, hard night of working the streets is more than enough…
In My Mailbox: Week of September 8
Title: The Mountain’s Shadow
Author: Cecilia Dominic
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: First it was ADD. Then pediatric bipolar. Now the hot behavioral disorder in children is CLS, or Chronic Lycanthropy Syndrome. Public health researcher Joanie Fisher was closing in on the cause in hopes of finding a treatment until a lab fire and an affair with her boss left her without a job.
When her grandfather leaves her his multimillion-dollar estate in the Ozarks, though, she figures her luck is turning around. Except her inheritance comes with complications: town children who disappear during full moons, an irresistible butler, and a pack of werewolves who can’t seem to decide whether to frighten her or flirt with her.
Joanie’s research is the key to unraveling the mysteries of Wolfsbane Manor. However, resuming her work means facing painful truths about her childhood, which could result in the loss of love, friendship, and the only true family she has left.
Unscripted by Jayne DenkerTitle: Unscripted
Author: Jayne Denker
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: One of Hollywood’s hardest working women is about to discover there’s a lot more drama behind the camera than in front of it. . .
Faith “Freakin'” Sinclair probably shouldn’t have called her boss a perv. . .or grabbed his “privates.” But as creator of the hit dramedy Modern Women, she’d had enough of his sexist insults. Now she’s untouchable in the industry–not in a good way. The only way to redeem herself is to convince Alex, the wildly popular, wildly demanding former star of her show, to come back. But there’s one obstacle in her way–one very handsome, broad-shouldered obstacle. . .
Professor Mason Mitchell is head of the theater department where Alex is studying “real” acting. The only way he’ll let Faith anywhere near Alex is if she agrees to co-teach a class. It’s an offer she can’t refuse–and as it turns out, the professor just might end up teaching Faith that there’s more to life than work–and that real-life love scenes are way more fun than fake ones. . .
Dandy Day by Annie WoodTitle: Dandy Day
Author: Annie Wood
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Dandy Day is a thirty-five year old free-spirited, commitment-phobic, Venice Boardwalk roller skating waitress.
When Dandy is suddenly dumped by her therapist, right when they were on the brink of figuring out why her relationships last only a whopping three months, Dandy decides to take her relationship issues into her own hands.
With the reluctant help of her lifelong best friend, Simon, Dandy tracks down her exes one by one and does a relationship autopsy on each of them in order to get to the bottom of her relationship challenged life.
Swimming Pool Summer by Rebecca FarnworthTitle: Swimming Pool Summer
Author: Rebecca Farnworth
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis: Three women, three secrets, one holiday… a lot of baggage.
Tamsin, Tor and Leila have been friends since University. Now in their mid thirties they are finding that life can be very complicated indeed.
Tamsin is single and has never had a relationship lasting longer than a year, the reason being that she has been secretly in love with someone her friends would disapprove of for years.
Tor doesn’t think she will ever have children after a doctor told her that she had more chance of winning the lottery than conceiving naturally. For the last six months she has been seeing Ed, who is ten years younger than her. But on the morning they are about to go on holiday she discovers she is pregnant.
On the outside Leila seems to have it all — a happy family and a successful career. She is married to Tom and mother of three-year-old Gracie. But one night she slept with a colleague from work. Crippled with guilt, she wonders if she should she tell her husband before he finds out.
Over the course of two weeks, emotions run high as the three women try to work out where on earth their lives are going. But secrets are hard to keep when you’re living together, and it’s only a matter of time before the men find out.
Happy Any Day Now by Toby DevensTitle: Happy Any Day Now
Author: Toby Devens
Received: Penguin
Synopsis: Every five years my mother had her fortune read by Lulu Cho, owner of the Golden Lotus Massage Club for Men. Now it was my turn. And Lulu predicted one hurricane of a future for me!
Judith Soo Jin Raphael’s childhood was shaped by her hardworking immigrant mother, her father who left them, and her struggles to fit in as a half-Korean, half-Jewish kid in a tough urban neighborhood. But music lessons gave her a purpose and passion. Now, as Judith’s fiftieth birthday nears, she has rewarding work as a cellist with the Maryland Philharmonic, an enthusiastic if uncommitted lover, and a quirky but close relationship with her mother.
Then chaos strikes: Judith’s first love, who dumped her decades ago, returns to dazzle her with his golden pedigree and brilliant career. Her long-absent father arrives out of the blue with a snazzy car and a con man’s patter, turning her mother into a love-struck flirt whom Judith barely recognizes. All this while her mentor at the orchestra falls seriously ill. No wonder Judith develops a paralyzing case of stage fright.
Judith finds herself feeling—and sometimes acting—slightly unhinged, but she’s convinced that happiness will arrive any day now. She’s just got to hold on tight during this midlife shake-up…and claim the prize that life surely has in store for her.
Life in Plan B by Jennifer VessellsTitle: Life in Plan B
Author: Jennifer Vessells
Received: Jennifer Vessells
Synopsis: When twenty-eight year old Haley Simpson, a sales associate for her best friend’s clothing boutique in Columbus, Ohio, begins a secret affair with the boutique’s potential New York City business partner, she digs a cavernous hole of deception that not only threatens to end her blossoming career, but to destroy a life-long friendship.
Jennifer Vessells’s debut novel, LIFE IN PLAN B, encompasses everything classic chick lit should: the dynamics of friendship, the nuances of high-reaching career aspirations, and the struggles – both usual and unique – presented by romantic and familial relationships. An entertaining story at every turn, LIFE IN PLAN B is identifiable for readers of any age. In short, Ms. Vessells hits her debut novel out of the park!
In My Mailbox: Week of August 18
Title: Everybody’s Got a Story
Author: Heather Wardell
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Both personally and professionally, Alexa knows all too well the power of words. Two years after her boyfriend Christophe’s vicious attack, she’s still trying to see herself as more than simply ‘his victim’, still trying to figure out her own story.
After his trial, she moves from New York City to Toronto in an attempt to start over, but his words cling to her and even in a new country she can’t see how to move into relationships with the new people in her life while hiding the secret of Christophe’s worst offense.
She can’t hide that secret from her coworker Jake, though, because the news buff has recognized her from the coverage of the assault and trial and knows every word she can’t bring herself to say about her ordeal.
With Jake’s help, can Alexa reclaim her story and her life?
Title: The Girl You Left Behind
Author: Jojo Moyes
Received: Penguin/SheReads
Synopsis: From the New York Times–bestselling author of Me Before You, a spellbinding love story of two women separated by a century but united in their determination to fight for what they love most
Jojo Moyes’s bestseller, Me Before You, catapulted her to wide critical acclaim and has struck a chord with readers everywhere. “Hopelessly and hopefully romantic” (Chicago Tribune), Moyes returns with another irresistible heartbreaker that asks, “Whatever happened to the girl you left behind?”
France, 1916: Artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his young wife, Sophie, to fight at the front. When their small town falls to the Germans in the midst of World War I, Edouard’s portrait of Sophie draws the eye of the new Kommandant. As the officer’s dangerous obsession deepens, Sophie will risk everything—her family, her reputation, and her life—to see her husband again.
Almost a century later, Sophie’s portrait is given to Liv Halston by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. A chance encounter reveals the painting’s true worth, and a battle begins for who its legitimate owner is—putting Liv’s belief in what is right to the ultimate test.
Like Sarah Blake’s The Postmistress and Tatiana de Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key, The Girl You Left Behind is a breathtaking story of love, loss, and sacrifice told with Moyes’s signature ability to capture our hearts with every turn of the page.
Title: Chase
Author: Jill Knapp Zitron
Received: Media Connect
Synopsis: When Amalia Hastings first came to New York to get her master’s degree at NYU, she didn’t think life could get much better – a perfect boyfriend, a great apartment, solid friends, and the pursuit of a successful career in medicine. One by one, she starts to lose the people and things she cherished most. Having never imagined life without them, it becomes a struggle for her to get back on track. But when a break-up, a new love interest, and several unexpected events test her strength, she comes to realize she’s a lot stronger than she would’ve ever imagined.
Title: Love and Happiness
Author: Galt Niederhoffer
Received: St. Martins Press
Synopsis: Jean Banks’ life is middling to poor. Her job as a film producer largely involves cold calling investors. Her sex drive for director husband Sam has all but vanished. Her children are a delight, but also a constant reminder that she’s not an unattached, twenty-something artist anymore. Put simply, Jean is in a midlife rut.
…until she clicks a button. Until the cache of unsent emails she’s written to Doug, her college flame, blasts across the World Wide Web. Until she meets handsome stranger Benjamin Kraft on a business trip and falls truly, madly, deeply for him. Now the cornerstone of a love quadrangle, Jean must choose—either the safe, day-to-day equilibrium she’s come to inhabit, or a liberation that will split her life open at its seams.
This is Forty for the Park Slope set, LOVE AND HAPPINESS perfects the balance between the Victorian and the modern that Niederhoffer first achieved in A Taxonomy of Barnacles. Her third novel artfully examines relationships, family, and the film world, with a style that winks at both Madame Bovary and Miranda July.
Title: Maybe I Will
Author: Laurie Gray
Received: Novel Publicity
Synopsis: It’s not about sex.
It’s about how one secret act of violence changes everything–how best friends can desert you when you need them most, how nobody understands. It’s about the drinking and stealing and lying and wondering who you can trust. It’s about parents and teachers, police officers and counselors–all the people who are supposed to help you, but who may not even believe you.
It’s about how suddenly all of your hopes and dreams can vanish, and you can find yourself all alone, with nothing and no one. Your only choice is to end it all or to start over… and all you can think is Maybe I Will.
Author Laurie Gray presents a compelling picture of the realities of sexual assault in Maybe I Will, drawing on her years of experience as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, dealing with crimes against children. The twist in the story is that we never know for sure if the victim is a boy or a girl, and we realize that it doesn’t matter, because it’s not about sex.
Title: Bargain Struck
Author: Liz Harris
Received: Choc Lit
Synopsis: Does a good deal make a marriage?
Widower Connor Maguire advertises for a wife to raise his young daughter, Bridget, work the homestead and bear him a son.
Ellen O’Sullivan longs for a home, a husband and a family. On paper, she is everything Connor needs in a wife. However, it soon becomes clear that Ellen has not been entirely truthful.
Will Connor be able to overlook Ellen’s dishonesty and keep to his side of the bargain? Or will Bridget’s resentment, the attentions of the beautiful Miss Quinn, and the arrival of an unwelcome visitor, combine to prevent the couple from starting anew.
As their personal feelings blur the boundaries of their deal, they begin to wonder if a bargain struck makes a marriage worth keeping.
In My Mailbox: Week of June 9
Title: Is This All There Is?
Author: Patricia Mann
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: “Is this all there is?” It’s a question every wife and mother eventually finds herself asking and thirty-five year old Beth Thomas is no exception. On the surface, her life is perfect. She’s married to her college sweetheart, has two beautiful little boys, and enjoys her part-time teaching appointment at the local university. But when a friend persuades Beth to go dancing on a rare night out, a chance meeting with twenty-one year old Dave, one of her former students, changes the course of her life. Loud music, too much to drink, and the thrill of feeling young again lead to an unforgettable kiss that was never supposed to happen. Beth tries to leave the memory behind, but Dave convinces her that he fell in love with her while he was in her class. As he continues to pursue her, he forces her to look at everything in her life through a different lens and the temptation of what he’s offering becomes too strong.
Patricia Mann’s “Is This All There Is?” introduces readers to the seemingly perfect world of Beth Thomas, a 35-year-old mother and wife who takes a risqué detour from diapers and duty to chart a course into erotica, deception and deceit. As the part-time college professor yields to the overpowering push and pull that follow a magnetic encounter with a former student, Beth is held captive in the seductive space that lingers between desire and reason. Honest and moving, Mann’s work is a touching snapshot of middle-America today, a compelling story about one woman’s struggle to keep up appearances while coming undone.
Down and Out in Bugtussle by Stephanie McAfeeTitle: Down and Out in Bugtussle
Author: Stephanie McAfee
Received: Penguin
Synopsis: With her fiancé now her ex-fiancé, Ace has hightailed it back to Bugtussle, Mississippi, and back to her Gramma Jones’s house. Her best friends, Lilly and Chloe, are delighted she’s back, but Ace still has some challenges ahead of her.
For one thing, her replacement as Bugtussle High School’s art teacher, Cameron Becker, refuses to vacate the position. So Ace is stuck working as a substitute teacher while harboring fantasies of running Miss Becker out of town. On top of that, Lilly and Chloe are obsessed with setting her up on less-than-romantic blind dates—even though all she wants is a break from her pitiful love life.
To ease her troubled mind, Ace resolves to restore her grandmother’s gardens to their former glory. But in the well-worn gardening book she’s dug out of her grandmother’s attic there are a series of suspicious notes that indicate her grandmother may have had a special someone in her past. Now, with her faithful chiweenie, Buster Loo, by her side, Ace is determined to get to the bottom of her grandmother’s secret life, all the while hoping her own life isn’t about to implode….
Save the Date by Allie SpencerTitle: Save the Date!
Author: Allie Spencer
Received: Random House UK
Synopsis: The only thing worse than the family holiday from hell, is the family wedding from hell. So, when faced with being marooned in a Tuscan castle with her thoroughly dysfunctional family for the 1930s-themed wedding of her rich, over-spoilt cousin Jessica, who could blame Ailsa Stuart for being less than enthusiastic?
As her family’s exhausted peacemaker she will have her work cut out. Not only is there her own nearest and dearest to deal with, but the sudden appearance of her ex-husband, desperate to reconcile with her almost sends her over the edge. But Ailsa needs to pull herself together, because without her calm presence, the wedding could end badly for all of them.
He’s The One by Katie PriceTitle: He’s the One
Author: Katie Price
Received: Colbert Macalister PR
Synopsis: A passionate story of lost love and second chances, from the bestselling Katie Price.
Twenty-year-old Liberty is beautiful, ambitious and dreams of making it as an actress. She is also a single mother and has a three-year old daughter, Brooke. Living with her mother, she supports her daughter by modelling and working as a waitress.
Then, over one perfect summer, Liberty meets and falls in love with Cory, a young American taking time off from university. But Liberty never feels good enough for him, and when she meets his university friends, she feels it’s only fair to let him go. Heartbroken, Cory leaves to go back to the States.
Liberty, meanwhile, suddenly gets the break she’s been praying for. Zac, a TV director has seen her picture and wants her to audition for a role in LA. And so, Liberty and Brooke begin a new phase of their lives. Suddenly, she is successful, but she can’t forget Cory. Until news of his engagement reaches her, and she finally agrees to marry Zac.
Years later, everything has changed. Liberty has fled LA, taking a reluctant teenage Brooke with her. But returning to her home town of Brighton reawakens painful memories. Especially as she meets Cory again. She still loves him, but he seems to hate her. Can she ever convince him to trust her again?
In My Mailbox: Week of March 10
In Samantha’s Mailbox:
chronicleTitle: Chronicle of the Mound Builders
Author: Elle Marie
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Archaeologist Dr. Angela Hunter discovers an ancient codex at a Mississippian Indian dig site in the St. Louis area. Knowing the Mississippians, or Mound Builders, had no written language, she is determined to solve the mystery of the 700-year-old, perfectly preserved codex.
In the early 1300’s, an Aztec family is torn apart. A judge rebelling against the Aztec tradition of human sacrifice is cursed and escapes his enemies with his 12-year-old son. They travel from the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi River to settle in the thriving community of Migaduha, modern-day Cahokia Mounds, Illinois.
Angela recognizes the symbols as Aztec pictograms and begins to translate the story. However, other forces also want the codex and will do anything to get it. Can she learn the secrets of the chronicle before the tragic events of the past are repeated today?
identityTitle: Identity Break
Author: Stifyn Emrys
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: How far would you go to find yourself?
Imagine everything you thought you knew about yourself turned out to be a lie, and you didn’t know who was telling the truth. Imagine you possessed a secret so dangerous that, if it were exposed, it would reshape the entire world.
What would you do if that secret were your very identity?
In almost every way, Palo Vista seems like a typical California city, with office buildings, schools, and homes sprawled out across suburbia, filled with families making a life for themselves at the dawn of the new millennium.
But two seniors at Mt. MacMurray High are about to find out that nothing is as it seems. Jason Nix is a star athlete and honors student who can’t seem to remember anything about his childhood. Elyse Van Auten is a budding artist from a broken home whose father left her mother two years ago – or so she’s been led to believe.
Like most teens entering adulthood, Elyse and Jason just want to find out who they really are. For them, however, the stakes go far beyond their own personal quest. Join them on a journey of self-discovery that becomes a desperate fight for survival against enemies determined to conceal the truth … and find out what happens when that fight becomes personal.
Cookies For DinnerTitle: Cookies For Dinner
Authors: Pam Johnson-Bennett & Kae Allen
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Ever wonder about the poop capacity of the average car seat?
Mothers don’t need another “how to” book on parenting. What they need is to know they’re not the only ones who stand on the supermarket check-out line engaging total strangers in potty training horror stories.
You’ll find plenty of books, relatives and friends who are happy to tell you what you’re doing wrong as a mother. Cookies for Dinner is the antidote to all that! Pam Johnson-Bennett and Kae Allen are two mothers who reveal their imperfections and embarrassments through a series of hilarious true stories.
Pam and Kae bravely tell about how one unexpectedly learns the poop capacity of a car seat, what to wear on Chicken Pox Island and what it feels like to have your toddler lock you out of the house while you’re wearing less-than flattering swimwear.
There’s also the fact that no one tells you that when nursing, your breasts will be treated like a fast food take-out window or that a ravenous infant can create more suction than industrial-grade vacuum cleaners. And, let’s not forget the appropriate technique for removing a crow that is found sitting on the diaper pail while you’re changing your infant’s diapers (hint… don’t use your child’s butterfly net) and how a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit can cause a pregnant woman to do strange things.
What do moms need? Laughter and the comfort of knowing you’re not alone on this roller coaster ride of motherhood. Whether you’re a young mother, experienced mom, mom-to-be, empty-nester, grandparent or still on the fence about becoming a mother, everyone relates to Cookies for Dinner It’s the perfect gift for anyone who will be, is now, has been or NEVER wants to be called… MOM!
Girl ThreeTitle: Girl Three
Author: Tracy March
Received: From Entangled Publishing
Synopsis: Bioethicist Jessica Croft, estranged daughter of a federal judge, has avoided the players, power, and passions of Washington, DC. But when her sister’s suspicious death is classified as natural, Jessie resolves to expose the murderer. Pursuing elite suspects on both sides of the stem-cell-research debate leads her to security consultant Michael Gillette, who knows more about her sister than he’ll admit.
Michael has a vested interest in Jessie’s plight. Her sister died on his watch—while he wasn’t watching. His plan to find her murderer becomes complicated when Jessie’s father hires him to protect Jessie, and his interest turns from professional…to romantic.
Jessie and Michael must unravel a mystery rife with political agendas and deceit. When confidential papers reveal a fertility scandal surrounding the enigmatic Girl Three, the two realize the danger of exposing the truth. Who is Girl Three? And will the murderer kill again to keep a secret?
happinessTitle: What Happiness Looks Like
Author: Karen Lenfestey
Received: From Karen Lenfestey
Synopsis: Joely Shupe had a vision of what her thirties would look like: she’d be the mother of two, finger painting with her kids during the day and cooking dinner for her loving husband at night. Instead she’s a single mother struggling to provide for her only child.
To make matters worse, her ex-fiancé, Jake, shows up–unemployed and reeling from a personal tragedy. He claims he’s ready to parent the daughter he abandoned five years ago. Joely is more interested in Dalton, a devoted father to his own son, who offers to take care of her the way no man ever has. Should Joely risk her daughter bonding with someone new or with the man who broke her heart?
Meanwhile, Joely’s sister, Kate, has the husband and the home, but no baby. After several failed attempts at fertility treatments, Kate’s husband is ready to give up. Kate believes his solution to their problems will tear them apart.
For Joely and Kate, one thing is for sure: this is not the life they expected. Is it time to adjust their idea of what happiness looks like?
beesTitle: The Death of Bees
Author: Lisa O’Donnell
Received: From RandomHouse UK
Synopsis: A riveting, brilliantly written debut novel, The Death of Bees is a coming-of-age story in which two young sisters attempt to hold the world at bay after the mysterious death of their parents.
Marnie and Nelly, left on their own in Glasgow’s Hazlehurst housing estate, attempt to avoid suspicion until Marnie can become a legal guardian for her younger sister.
Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, and told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.
In Sara’s Mailbox:
next stopTitle: Next Stop
Author: Glen Finland
Received: Jessica @ Penguin Group
Synopsis: Next Stop is the universal story of how children grow up and parents learn to let go—no matter how difficult it may be for both of them.
The summer David Finland was twenty-one, he and his mother rode the Washington, D.C., metro trains. Every day. The goal was that if David could learn the train lines, maybe David could get a job. And then maybe he could move out on his own. And then maybe his parents’ marriage could get the jump-start it craved. Maybe. Next Stop is a candid portrait of a differently-abled young man poised at the entry to adulthood. It recounts the complex relationship between a child with autism and his family, as he steps out into the real world alone for the first time, and how his autism affects everyone who loves him.
cakeTitle: Saved By Cake
Author: Marian Keyes
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis: Beloved novelist Marian Keyes tackles the kitchen with a new cookbook featuring desserts that are both simple and delicious, with step-by-step instructions and stunning photography.
“To be perfectly blunt about it, my choice sometimes is: I can kill myself, or I can make a dozen cupcakes. Right so, I’ll do the cupcakes and I can kill myself tomorrow.”
In Saved by Cake, Marian Keyes gives a candid account of her recent battle with depression and her discovery that learning to bake was exactly what she needed to regain her joie de vivre. A complete novice in the kitchen, Marian decided to bake a cake for a friend. From the moment she began measuring, she realized that baking was the best way for her to get through each day.
Refreshingly honest and wickedly funny, Saved by Cake shines with Keyes’ inimitable charm and is chockfull of sound advice. Written in Marian’s signature style, her take on baking is honest, witty, extremely accessible and full of fun. Her simple and delicious recipes—from Consistently Reliable Cupcakes to Fridge-set Honeycomb Cheesecake—are guaranteed to tempt even the most jaded palate.
beesTitle: The Death of Bees
Author: Lisa O’Donnell
Received: Arwen From RandomHouse UK
Synopsis: A riveting, brilliantly written debut novel, The Death of Bees is a coming-of-age story in which two young sisters attempt to hold the world at bay after the mysterious death of their parents.
Marnie and Nelly, left on their own in Glasgow’s Hazlehurst housing estate, attempt to avoid suspicion until Marnie can become a legal guardian for her younger sister.
Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, and told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.
In My Mailbox: Week of March 3
In Samantha’s Mailbox:
brenda novakTitle: When Summer Comes
Author: Brenda Novak
Received: From Brenda Novak
Synopsis: One day, Callie Vanetta receives devastating news…
She needs a liver transplant. But her doctors warn that, in her case, the chances of finding a compatible donor aren’t good.
Determined to spend whatever time she has left on her own terms, she keeps the diagnosis to herself and moves out to her late grandparents’ farm. She’s always wanted to live there. But the farm hasn’t been worked in years and she begins to fear she can’t manage it, that she’ll have to return to town.
One night, a stranger comes knocking at her door…
He’s an attractive and mysterious drifter by the name of Levi McCloud, and he offers to trade work for a few nights’ shelter. Callie figures she doesn’t have anything to lose. He needs a place to stay until he can fix his motorcycle; she needs an extra pair of hands. The arrangement seems ideal until what was supposed to be temporary starts to look more and more permanent. Then she realizes she does have something to lose—her heart. And, although he doesn’t yet know it, Levi stands to lose even more.
and the i found youTitle: And Then I Found You
Author: Patti Callahan Henry
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis: Kate Vaughan is no stranger to tough choices.
She’s made them before. Now it’s time to do it again.
Kate has a secret, something tucked away in her past. And she’s getting on with her life. Her business is thriving. She has a strong relationship with her family, and a devoted boyfriend whom she wants to love with all her heart. If Kate had ever made a list, Rowan would fill the imagined boxes of a perfect mate. But she wants more than the perfect on paper relationship; she wants a real and imperfect love. That’s why, when Kate discovers the small velvet box hidden in Rowan’s drawer, she panics.
It always happens this way. Just when Kate thinks she can love, just when she believes she can conquer the fear, she’s filled with dread. And she wants more than anything to make this feeling go away. But how?
When the mistakes have been made and the running is over, it’s time to face the truth. Kate knows this. She understands that a woman can never undo what can never be undone. Yet, for the first time in her life she also knows that she won’t fully love until she confronts those from her past. It’s time to act.
Can she do it? Can she travel to the place where it all began, to the one who shares her secret? Can the lost ever become found?
And Then I Found You gives new life to the phrase “inspired by a true story.” By travelling back to a painful time in her own family’s history, the author explores the limits of courage, and the price of a selfless act.
lisaTitle: Come Home
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Received: Ebury Press
Synopsis: Lisa Scottoline has delivered taut thrillers with a powerful emotional wallop in her New York Times bestsellers Save Me, Think Twice, and Look Again. Now, with her new novel, Come Home, she ratchets up the suspense with the riveting story of a mother who sacrifices her future for a child from her past.
Jill Farrow is a typical suburban mom who has finally gotten her and her daughter’s lives back on track after a divorce. She is about to remarry, her job as a pediatrician fulfills her—though it is stressful—and her daughter, Megan, is a happily over-scheduled thirteen-year-old juggling homework and the swim team.
But Jill’s life is turned upside down when her ex-stepdaughter, Abby, shows up on her doorstep late one night and delivers shocking news: Jill’s ex-husband is dead. Abby insists that he was murdered and pleads with Jill to help find his killer. Jill reluctantly agrees to make a few inquiries and discovers that things don’t add up. As she digs deeper, her actions threaten to rip apart her new family, destroy their hard-earned happiness, and even endanger her own life. Yet Jill can’t turn her back on a child she loves and once called her own.
Come Home reads with the breakneck pacing of a thriller while also exploring the definition of motherhood, asking the questions: Do you ever stop being a mother? Can you ever have an ex-child? What are the limits to love of family?
place for usTitle: A Place For Us
Author: Liza Gyllenhaal
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis: Brook Bostock has led a privileged life. The daughter of an extremely wealthy and prominent family, she married the man of her dreams and is raising two deeply loved children. But her happy home is shattered when a neighborhood teenager is assaulted during a night of drinking with the Bostocks’ son and his prep school friends.
The scandal receives national attention—not only because of Brook’s family name, but because of the lawsuit looming against Brook and her husband, Michael, that alleges they are responsible for what went on in their house. Suddenly the small Massachusetts town they call home seems to be turning against them, revealing the simmering jealousies and resentments that have been lurking under the surface all along.
With their once-perfect family in danger of falling apart, Brook and Michael must find a way to get through this together—or risk losing everything they love…
lifeTitle: Evidence of Life
Author: Barbara Taylor Sissel
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis:
On the last ordinary day of her life, Abby Bennett feels like the luckiest woman alive. But everyone knows that luck doesn’t last forever…
As her husband, Nick, and daughter, Lindsey, embark on a weekend camping trip to the Texas Hill Country, Abby looks forward to having some quiet time to herself. She braids Lindsey’s hair, reminds Nick to drive safely and kisses them both goodbye. For a brief moment, Abby thinks she has it all—a perfect marriage, a perfect life—until a devastating storm rips through the region, and her family vanishes without a trace.
When Nick and Lindsey are presumed dead, lost in the raging waters, Abby refuses to give up hope. Consumed by grief and clinging to her belief that her family is still alive, she sets out to find them. But as disturbing clues begin to surface, Abby realizes that the truth may be far more sinister than she imagined. Soon she finds herself caught in a current of lies that threaten to unhinge her and challenge everything she once believed about her marriage and family.
With a voice that resonates with stunning clarity, Barbara Taylor Sissel delivers a taut and chilling mystery about a mother’s love, a wife’s obsession and the invisible fractures that can shatter a family.
In Sara’s Mailbox:
harlanTitle: Six Years
Author: Harlan Coben
Received: Cassie @ Penguin
Synopsis: Six years have passed since Jake Sanders watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.
But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for…but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for almost two decades, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life—a time he has never gotten over—is turned completely inside out.
As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can’t be found, or don’t remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake’s search for the woman who broke his heart, who lied to him, soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on a carefully constructed fiction.
Harlan Coben once again delivers a shocking page-turner that deftly explores the power of past love, and the secrets and lies that such love can hide.
In My Mailbox: Week of February 24
In Samantha’s Mailbox:
appetitesTitle: Appetites
Author: Karen Frankola
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: When Sarah suddenly hears from Harry, the Brit she almost married twenty years ago, she decides now is the time to change her life. Sarah has a great job in Manhattan, but she considers herself too fat to have a boyfriend. Harry is visiting New York in four months and she wants to turn back into the girl he fell in love with. Since she can never stick to a diet, she comes up with a drastic solution.
Sarah asks her sister Max to lock her up in her basement and feed her nothing but healthy meals. Max, a struggling waitress, agrees begrudgingly. She’s skinny, but has her own set of appetites—for drink, drugs, and great-looking losers.
Sarah thinks a summer in Max’s basement will give her a new body, a chance to reconnect with Harry, and the friendship she’s long craved from her sister. But things quickly go wrong. Max’s drinking leads her to neglect Sarah, who figures out how to get out of the basement. Sarah develops an obsession with Max’s boyfriend and manages to fulfill a sexual fantasy by pretending to be something she’s not.
Can Sarah turn back time with Harry or will she and Max kill each other first? Can either sister ever learn to say no?
anneTitle: Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Author: Therese Anne Fowler
Received: From St. Martins Press
Synopsis: I wish I could tell everyone who thinks we’re ruined, Look closer…and you’ll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true. We have never been what we seemed.
When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the “ungettable” Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn’t wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner’s, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.
What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.
Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby’s parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott’s, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda’s irresistible story as she herself might have told it.
power tripTitle: The Power Trip
Author: Jackie Collins
Received: From Get Red PR
Synopsis: A luxurious yacht in the Sea of Cortez, a birthday cruise for one of the world’s most beautiful women and an invitation no one can refuse. The Power Trip—take it if you dare.
From Hollywood icon and mega-seller Jackie Collins comes a thrilling new novel, The Power Trip, set on a state of the art luxury yacht off the coast of Cabo San Lucas. A tropical getaway with a cast of global power-hungry elites turns sour when they find out maybe they don’t control as much of the world as they thought . . .
In The Power Trip you will meet Aleksandr Kasianenko, a billionaire Russian oligarch, as he sets sail on The Bianca. You’ll meet his sexy supermodel girlfriend, whom The Bianca is named after, and five dynamic, powerful, and famous couples invited on the yacht’s maiden voyage: Hammond Patterson, a driven Senator, and his lovely but unhappy wife, Sierra; Cliff Baxter, a charming, never-married movie star, and his ex-waitress girlfriend, Lori; Taye Sherwin, a famous black UK footballer and his interior designer wife, Ashley; Luca Perez, a male Latin singing sensation with his older decadent English boyfriend, Jeromy; and Flynn, a maverick journalist with his Asian renegade female friend, Xuan.
You will also meet Russian mobster, Sergei Zukov, a man with a grudge against Aleksandr. And Sergei’s Mexican beauty queen girlfriend, Ina, whose brother, Cruz, is a master pirate with orders to hold The Bianca and its illustrious rota of guests for ransom.
The Power Trip explorers the decadent playgrounds of the super-rich . . . and leaves you hungry for more.
baby diariesTitle: The Baby Diaries
Author: Sam Binnie
Received: Avon Books
Synopsis: The hilarious and heart-warming second in the series from the author of The Wedding Diaries.
“I’d be sick right now, but I never like to reinforce a cliché.”
A few weeks after Kiki and Thom return from honeymoon, Kiki finds there’s a noticeable absence. An extremely serious noticeable absence of something, it turns out, Kiki now realises she was pretty glad about. One pregnancy test later, Kiki’s breaking the “good news” (Thom: Wow. We’re so… Edwardian.) and rewriting all the plans she’d made before.
With an ever-expanding waistline, her nightmare childhood “friend” Annie pregnant too, all the problem authors at Polka Dot Books she could (not) wish for and an army of NW London’s Smug Mothers to deal with, these nine months might not be the nine months of blooming relaxation she’d been promised…
Title: Gone With the Wedding
Author: Laura Briggs
Received: From Laura Briggs
Synopsis: Amy Pontelle is a best-selling Romance novelist and diehard GONE WITH THE WIND fan, whose just been offered the Southern belle wedding of a lifetime.
But even when Amy convinces her slower than Southern molasses fiancé, history professor Greg Willey, to play along, her dream of being Scarlett for the big day still has a few snags. The mansion is antiquated to the point of deterioration, its ancient staff is forgetful at best, and Amy can’t escape the true horrors of a corset as the price for elegance.
The worst part is, Amy is now questioning everything–her dreams, her life, and her engagement–now that she’s face to face with the reality of those dreams and the persuasive presence of a better-than-fiction Southern gentleman in an unlikely form…
In Sara’s Mailbox:
sevenTitle: Seven Night Stand
Author: Nicole Helm
Received: Katie @ Entangled Publishing
Synopsis: Reality TV scout Vivvy Marsh loves her job, but she’ll lose it if she doesn’t find a hit. When she’s sent to Demo, Kansas to scout a show, it looks like a bust. It’s flat, boring, and she’s not inspired…until she meets sexy pilot, Nate Harrington.
Nate can’t deny his feelings for Vivvy. She’s beautiful, and doesn’t blink an eye at his crazy family. He could get used to her…but her Hollywood lifestyle doesn’t fly in his small town.
Their feelings deepen, but they’re going to have to part ways at the end of seven days, or one of them is going to have to make a sacrifice that’ll change their lives forever.
harlanTitle: Six Years
Author: Harlan Coben
Received: Cassie @ Penguin Group
Synopsis: Six years have passed since Jake Sanders watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.
But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for…but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for almost two decades, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life—a time he has never gotten over—is turned completely inside out.
As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can’t be found, or don’t remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake’s search for the woman who broke his heart, who lied to him, soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on a carefully constructed fiction.
Harlan Coben once again delivers a shocking page-turner that deftly explores the power of past love, and the secrets and lies that such love can hide.
In My Mailbox: Week of February 3
In Samantha’s Mailbox:
love-in-translationTitle: Love in Translation
Author: Sara Palacios
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Still reeling from an unexpected breakup, Emily nurses her broken heart by spending time with her best friends and taking one-too-many vodka shots. After one long night, she takes a hard look inside herself and doesn’t like what she sees. She realizes that she has sacrificed too much in her failed relationships from the past and vows to never settle for anything less than almost-perfect again. As she picks up the pieces and regains her confidence, a sexy Spanish chef moves in across the hall and knocks her off her feet. What ensues is an unexpected and tantalizing affair that opens her eyes – and her heart – to a whole new world and leaves her feeling sexier than she has ever felt. Emily finally sees how easy love is supposed to be. Is happily-ever-after actually possible? Just when she starts to think so, she realizes that sometimes life gets more complicated before it gets easier. And complicated is an understatement when Steven (her best and oldest friend in the world) confesses his love for her. Everything spirals out of control as Emily must make a choice between love and friendship, and in doing so, possibly risk it all.
LOVE IN TRANSLATION is a modern day love story about following your heart to unexpected places and taking chances in life … because sometimes you will find exactly what you are looking for.
swanTitle: Swan Story
Author: Priya Narendran
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Soon to be married Daniel Macgregor meets mysterious beauty Sarah Mitchell on the day his father gives him a ballet company as a present. Although at first reluctant to take responsibility, he changes his mind when he realizes Sarah dances for the same company. Over the course of the production of “Swan Lake” they fall head over heels in love. Unknown to Daniel, Sarah is cursed to turn into a swan from sunset to sunrise and only true love will break the spell. So it makes Sarah wonder, what will happen when he finds out what she is.
eighty eightTitle: Eighty-Eight Keys
Author: Catherine Lavender
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Leah is a young woman who is trying to break free from a strict religious background and pursue her dream as a pianist in the world of show business. While trying to find her independence her heart is held captive by Jason Rowe a local basketball star who established an organization to help troubled youth. When Jason is found murdered in his home, Leah is determined to get answers from a closed investigation. During her state of emotional turmoil, Leah finds comfort not only in the melody of her music, but in the arms of a married man named Calvin. With her dreams at her fingertips, Leah is tangled in a web of lies and deceit. Despite the fear of learning the truth, Leah has to realize that only the truth can set her free.
A dead lover, with a trail of broken hearts…
A married man, with a double-life…
A dream chaser, with a killer at her heels…
A piano, with eighty-eight keys…
katieTitle: A French Affair
Author: Katie Fforde
Received: Randomhouse
Synopsis: Gina and Sally Makepiece have inherited a stall in the French House – an antiques centre nestled in the heart of the English countryside.
Gina is determined to drag the French House and its grumpy owner into the twenty-first century. Bearing all the attributes of a modern-day Mr Rochester, Matthew Ballinger is less than happy with the whirlwind that has arrived on his doorstep.
The last thing either of them want is to fall in love.
But will a trip to France change their minds?
Essex GirlsTitle: Essex Girls
Author: Laura Ziepe
Received: Avon
Synopsis: You can take the girl out of Essex …
You’ll be well jel over the adventures of three good-hearted, strong-willed, fake-baked Essex Girls. Fun, fresh and always ream, this novel Perfect for fans of TOWIE and the novels of Katie Price.
Jade did everything she could to fit in at university – toned down her tan, gave up on her favourite fake lashes, swapped designer dresses for jeans. And it seemed to make her boyfriend Tom happy. But obviously not quite happy enough.
When Jade finds Tom’s been cheating she heads home: to Essex. Reunited with her best mates Kelly and Lisa, even a night out at The Sugar Hut isn’t enough to put a smile back on her face. So they hatch a plan to get away from it all, to a place so ream it’s unreal – Marbella. Sun, sea, men, vajazzles: what could possibly go wrong?
In Sara’s Mailbox:
mooseTitle: The One-Way Bridge
Author: Cathie Pelletier
Received: Source Books
Synopsis: Cathie Pelletier draws readers back to the beloved town of Mattagash, a seemingly quiet New England outpost in Maine. Yet Mattagash is anything but tranquil. While its citizens bicker publicly over small-town theft or their neighbors’ offensive mailboxes, they privately struggle through deeper life issues: scandal, loss, failed ambitions, and the scars of war.
Reaching across the vastness of America and into the jungles of Vietnam, The One-Way Bridge is an unforgettable portrait of loneliness, family, and community—and the kinds of changes we make for love.
white windTitle: A White Wind Blew
Author: James Markert
Received: Source Books
Synopsis: When the body fails, you’ve got two choices. Send a doctor in, or send a prayer up. And if neither works?
You’ll find Dr. Wolfgang Pike at his piano.
Music has always been Wolfgang’s refuge. It’s betraying him now, as he struggles to compose a requiem for his late wife, but surely the right ending will come to him. Certainly it’ll come more quickly than a cure for his patients up at Waverly Hills, the tuberculosis hospital, where nearly a body an hour leaves in a coffin. Wolfgang can’t seem to save anyone these days, least of all himself.
Sometimes we just need to know we’re not the only ones in the fight. A former concert pianist checks in, triggering something deep inside Wolfgang, and spreading from patient to patient. Soon Wolfgang finds himself in the center of an orchestra that won’t give up, with music that won’t stop. A White Wind Blew delivers a sweeping crescendo of hope in a time of despair, raising compelling questions about faith and confession, music and medicine,and the undying force of love.
In My Mailbox: Week of December 30
In Samantha’s Mailbox:
savannah pageTitle: When Girlfriends Step Up
Author: Savannah Page
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: A novel about love and support, and learning that with enduring friendships, no woman is ever alone.
Robin Sinclair is young, determined, and has a promising career at a small publishing house in Seattle. Even though she considers herself unlucky in love, Robin still dreams of eventually meeting Mr. Right and having a happily-ever-after kind of life. And at twenty-five, the world of opportunity is wide. But it’s been a difficult year filled with trials…and it’s only just begun.
While long-time friendships are finally on the mend, and things are starting to look up again, Robin is faced with her biggest challenge yet. She’s single and pregnant.
Uncertain now of her future and scared of being alone, Robin must re-examine her life and choices, and summon the courage to step up.
With the love and support of her best girlfriends from college, especially her best friend and roommate, Lara, Robin will learn that when the going gets tough, the best of friends become family. And, perhaps, with their encouragement, Robin can mature and gain the confidence needed to become a single mother. And, who knows about being unlucky in love. Things are suddenly getting interesting with Robin’s attractive co-worker, Bobby.
This is an endearing story about maturity and perseverance. It’s a story about friends coming together as family, about finding the strength within and around, and about writing your own happily-ever-after. About what happens when girlfriends step up.
Alberta ClipperTitle: Alberta Clipper
Author: Sheena Lambert
Received: From Sheena Lambert
Synopsis: Christine Grogan is a beautiful 28-year-old meteorologist with a loving family, great friends and an exciting career working for an international investment bank. So why does she spend every January 20th crying like her heart might break? As everyone around her appears to be moving on with their lives, Christine wears her past like a pair of concrete shoes. Can nothing, or nobody help her shake them?
Mark Harrington thought he had all he ever wanted. Head of the bank’s Irish operations, he has the career, the house and the relationship any 39-year-old would wish for. But when his seemingly perfectly-planned life suddenly strays totally off course, Mark is confronted with the fact that he isn’t actually in control at all…
…and that he is crazy in love with Christine.
Insider trading, rambunctious Christmas parties, overnight conferences, the modern office environment has it all. But it can also be the stage for a simple, modern love story.
ALBERTA CLIPPER is that story.
It is a story of guilt and forgiveness, trust and betrayal.
And absolute, unconditional love.
The story of two people, each floundering in their own lives, who might just be able to save one another.
Love or MoneyTitle: Love or Money?
Author: Carrie Stone
Received: From Carrie Stone
Synopsis: How does a successful, money-driven woman act when her world is turned upside down and her values are brought into question? Felicity Harroway is about to go on a journey. A long distance one.
Housewife and best friend Zara is also about to undertake new changes with a baby on the way. Just not quite in the way she’s expecting. For husband Steve isn’t as honest as he appears…
Can Felicity’s anxious and downtrodden mother Glenda guide both women in the right direction? Will fellow friend Sylvia lead by example and find happiness with her celebrity boyfriend?
Join the four women as they battle with the trials of work and relationships, and begin to question the all important dilemma… Love or Money? Or can you have both?
Title: Caramel Magnolias
Author: Tess Hardwick
Received: From Booktrope
Synopsis: Ten years ago, Cleo Tanner lost her first and only true love in a fateful motorcycle accident and now leads a quiet, isolated life in Seattle. Sylvia, her best friend from college, is trapped in a loveless marriage, blinded by her desire to have a child.
Both women are living passively on the sidelines of life, longing for that which they cannot have..until Cleo has an unexpected encounter with an adoption agency owner just as Sylvia suffers from another failed in-vitro procedure. Not long after, Cleo is approached by a detective because her phone number found at the same location a missing teenage girl was last seen. As the investigation unfolds, both women find their hearts – and lives – at risk.
A toast to friendship, mended hearts, and new beginnings, Caramel Magnolias reminds us it’s never too late to reawaken the heart.
Calling Me HomeTitle: Calling Me Home
Author: Julie Kibler
Received: SheKnows
Synopsis: Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler is a soaring debut interweaving the story of a heartbreaking, forbidden love in 1930s Kentucky with an unlikely modern-day friendship.
Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It’s a big one. Isabelle wants Dorrie, a black single mom in her thirties, to drop everything to drive her from her home in Arlington, Texas, to a funeral in Cincinnati. With no clear explanation why. Tomorrow.
Dorrie, fleeing problems of her own and curious whether she can unlock the secrets of Isabelle’s guarded past, scarcely hesitates before agreeing, not knowing it will be a journey that changes both their lives.
Over the years, Dorrie and Isabelle have developed more than just a business relationship. They are friends. But Dorrie, fretting over the new man in her life and her teenage son’s irresponsible choices, still wonders why Isabelle chose her.
Isabelle confesses that, as a willful teen in 1930s Kentucky, she fell deeply in love with Robert Prewitt, a would-be doctor and the black son of her family’s housekeeper–in a town where blacks weren’t allowed after dark. The tale of their forbidden relationship and its tragic consequences makes it clear Dorrie and Isabelle are headed for a gathering of the utmost importance and that the history of Isabelle’s first and greatest love just might help Dorrie find her own way.
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