Bring Her Home

 

Just a year and a half after the tragic death of his wife, Bill Price's fifteen-year-old daughter, Summer, and her best friend, Haley, disappear. Days later, the girls are found in a city park. Haley is dead at the scene, while Summer is left beaten beyond recognition and clinging to life.

As Bill holds vigil over Summer's bandaged body, the only sound the unconscious girl can make is one cryptic and chilling word: No. And the more time Bill spends with Summer, the more he wonders what happened to her. Or if the injured girl in the hospital bed is really his daughter at all.

When troubling new questions about Summer's life surface, Bill is not prepared for the aftershocks. He'll soon discover that both the living and the dead have secrets. And that searching for the truth will tear open old wounds that pierce straight to the heart of his family...

David Bell was an author I had read before and loved.  Somebody I Used to Know was a 5 star read for me.  While I enjoyed the story in Bring Her Home it just didn't feel very original to me and I felt it was pretty predictable.  The writing was good and it moved pretty quickly.  In my opinion, there were too many characters and they just weren't quite developed fully.  I will read David Bell again, this just wasn't for me.  

            * I received this title from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest opinion *

 

The Plot

 

Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written—let alone published—anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that—a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.

As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing” of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?

In the past week, I have finished The Plot and watched The Undoing, a TV adaptation on You Should Have Known all by Jean Hanff Korelitz.  All fantastic!  I will now be on the lookout for other titles by her to add to my TBR very soon.  The Plot was structured so uniquely and I absolutely devoured it in a few days.  I love books about books, but they often don't deliver in the way I hope.  This book delivered and more.  I really don't want to say much, other than pick it up!!

            * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *  

Meet Me in the Margins

 

Savannah Cade is a low-level editor at Pennington Publishing, a prestigious publisher producing only the highest of highbrow titles. And while editing the latest edition of The Anthology of Medieval Didactic Poetry may be her day job, she has two secrets she’s hiding.

One: She’s writing a romance novel.

Two: She’s discovered the Book Nook—a secret room in the publishing house where she finds inspiration for her “lowbrow” hobby.

After leaving her manuscript behind one afternoon, she returns to the nook only to discover someone has written notes in the margins. Savannah’s first response to the criticism is defensive, but events transpire that force her to admit that she needs the help of this shadowy editor after all. As the notes take a turn for the romantic, and as Savannah’s madcap life gets more complicated than ever, she uses the process of elimination to identify her mysterious editor—only to discover that what she truly wants and what she should want just might not be the same. Melissa Ferguson’s latest—a love letter to books, readers, and romance—will leave fans laughing out loud and swooning in the same breath.

This was the exact right book, at the exact right time!  I had seen comparisons to You've Got Mail and I think that was a very accurate description.  The characters were lovable and I knew what was going to happen, but I was fine with that in the rom-com.  My only issue was I wish we had seen the story through the eyes if Savannah and Will, instead of just Savannah.  It just would have been a perfect addition to hear his thoughts about the situations as well.  If you are looking for a sweet, clean romance, check this one out soon!

            * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *         

Hello, Transcriber

Every night, while the street lamps shed the only light on Wisconsin’s most crime-ridden city, police transcriber Hazel Greenlee listens as detectives divulge Black Harbor’s gruesome secrets. An aspiring novelist, Hazel believes that writing a book could be her only ticket out of this frozen hellscape, but her life isn’t exactly brimming with inspiration. Until her neighbor confesses to hiding the corpse of an overdose victim. 

With an insider’s look at the investigation, Hazel becomes spellbound by the lead detective, Nikolai Kole, and the chilling narrative he shares with her. Through his transcription, she learns that the suspicious death is linked to Candy Man―a drug dealer notorious for selling illegal substances to children―and when Kole invites her on a covert operation to help take the dealer down, the promise of a story calls to her. As the investigation unfolds, Hazel will discover just how far she will go for her story, even if it means destroying her marriage, her career, and any chance she has of getting out of Black Harbor alive. Because if she’s learned one relentless truth about this place, it’s the fact that everybody lies.

This book did not deliver for me like I had hoped. The character development was flat and I didn’t buy into any of the relationships. I had high hopes for a story told from a police transcriber, but we actually got very little from that perspective. It was too vulgar and too predictable and almost read like a gritty romance with a mystery thrown in from my perspective. I wish I would have liked it more but just wasn’t a story for me. 

               * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

Our House

There's nothing unusual about a new family moving in at 91 Trinity Avenue. Except it's her house. And she didn't sell it.

Fiona Lawson is sure there's been a mistake when she comes home to find strangers moving into her house. She and her estranged husband, Bram, have a modern coparenting arrangement: bird's nest custody, where each parent spends a few nights a week with their two sons at the prized family home to maintain stability for their children. But the system built to protect their family ends up putting them in terrible jeopardy. In a domino effect of crimes and misdemeanors, the nest comes tumbling down. 

Now Bram has disappeared, and so have Fiona's children. As events spiral well beyond her control, Fiona will discover just how many lies her husband was weaving and how little they truly know each other. Bram's not the only one with things to hide, though, and some secrets are best kept to oneself, safe as houses.

This is the first novel I’ve read by Louise Candlish and I would pick up something else by her. While the book fell flat for me in the middle, overall, I enjoyed it. The premise was interesting and not something I have read about before. It was just too long for this type of book and could have been 50-100 pages shorter in my opinion. However, I was hooked from the beginning and the ending delivered. 

       * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest opinion *

           

The Last House on the Street

When Kayla Carter's husband dies in an accident while building their dream house, she knows she has to stay strong for their four-year-old daughter. But the trophy home in Shadow Ridge Estates, a new development in sleepy Round Hill, North Carolina, will always hold tragic memories. But when she is confronted by an odd, older woman telling her not to move in, she almost agrees. It's clear this woman has some kind of connection to the area...and a connection to Kayla herself. Kayla's elderly new neighbor, Ellie Hockley, is more welcoming, but it's clear she, too, has secrets that stretch back almost fifty years. Is Ellie on a quest to right the wrongs of the past? And does the house at the end of the street hold the key? Told in dual time periods, The Last House on the Street is a novel of shocking prejudice and violence, forbidden love, the search for justice, and the tangled vines of two families.

I honestly can't even imagine not enjoying a Diane Chamberlain book, she's amazing! She is definitely a top author for me and this book is no exception! The storyline in both timelines was so engaging I didn't want to leave either one. the only thing that kept me from a 5 star review is I just didn't connect to the characters quite as much as I have in past books. I just didn't feel as emotional pulled in. But that was fine by me. The story moved fast and I wanted to know how it would all end. Keep writing Diane!

        * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review * 

We Are All Made of Stars

 

Stella Carey has good reason to only work nights at the hospice where she is a nurse. Married to a war veteran who has returned from Afghanistan brutally injured, Stella leaves the house each night as her husband Vincent, locks himself away, unable to sleep due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

During her nights at the hospice, Stella writes letters for her patients containing their final wishes, thoughts and feelings – from how to use a washing machine, to advice on how to be a good parent – and usually she delivers each letter to the recipient after he or she has died.

That is until Stella writes one letter that she feels compelled to deliver in time to give her patient one final chance of redemption…

What would you say if you got one chance to say goodbye?  This book explores that in a very unique way that I thought was very poignant.  There are basically 3 storylines that you follow throughout the book and eventually they intersect.  While I usually love that in a story, I wished it would have come together a little sooner.  However, it was beautifully written, all the characters were flawed, yet lovely.  Just an all around sweet read!

         * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *