A love letter to books and reading. This debut is catnip for any book geek. I just loved it.” —Cesca Major, author of Maybe Next Time, a Reese’s Book Club Pick
A story of second chances and new beginnings, this is a love letter to books—and a love letter to life
Still reeling from a recent tragedy, Erin Connolly knows she needs to start living, but has no idea how. When she accidentally donates her favorite book—a heavily annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird containing a memento she can’t be without—to a local little community library, she’s devastated. But then the book turns up a week later, back in the library with fresh notes in the margins, along with an invitation in a copy of Great Expectations to meet her newfound pen pal.
A life-changing conversation, written only in the margins of beloved classic books, begins between Erin and her Mystery Man. Following each other through the pages of their favorite novels as the book exchange continues, they both begin to open up, falling into a friendship…and maybe something more.
But Erin and her pen pal have a shared history that neither of them has guessed. Faced with painful reminders of the past—and the one person she swore never to forgive—Erin finds herself at a crossroads. One that could change her life forever.
A book-lovers dream! References to the following classics can be found in The Book Swap.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
MANSFIELD PARK
THE GREAT GATSBY
MIDDLEMARCH
BELOVED
ON THE ROAD
THE BELL JAR
Review
Erin finally decided to quit her job. She knows she needs to do something new, she just has no idea what. When she accidentally donates her heavily annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird containing a memento she can’t be without to a local little community library, she’s devastated. She checks this little library daily. It is soon returned back to this little library and it is full of new comments. This opens up secret conversations with a mystery man!
Erin is a bit of a hot mess. She is still grief stricken and she has some issues she just can’t shake. Then there is James. He is struggling through life as well. His mother is bipolar and he blames himself for it. But, both of these characters struggle to come into their own. And they do it separately for the most part, or rather, they have no idea they have helped each other through their margin notes.
Parts of this book are brilliant! I loved the book references and the way they wrote notes to each other is adorable. This is very unique and creative. Then there are parts that are just a tad slow, the beginning especially.
This story is more than just a love story. It encompasses grief, heartbreak, bullying and family issues. So, it will definitely give you lots of emotions!
Need a wonderful romance with tons of book references…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
In this hopeful debut about the silent struggles of motherhood, three very different women want custody of the same two little girls—and learn they have more in common than the children they’re fighting for.
Determined to be a better mother than her own, Hannah has devoted her life to her daughters. She ignores her increasing exhaustion and isolation as a widowed mom—until a disastrous mistake lands the girls in foster care.
Julie is single and lonely and dreams of being a mother. After infertility issues lead her to foster parenting, she falls head over heels for Hannah’s daughters. The more she bonds with these sweet, precocious girls, the more she worries about their previous home life and becomes intent on finding a way to keep them.
Recently forced into retirement, Elaine is devastated by the way her daughter, Hannah, has shut her out. When she discovers her granddaughters are in foster care, she resolves to rescue them from the system: her one chance at a parenting do-over.
Each woman thinks she’s the best possible mother, but none understands the full truth. Old hurts, long-held secrets, and budding new relationships collide as they fight for the girls who could make them a family.
Review
Hannah has recently lost her husband. She has two little girls. And Hannah is spiraling! Due to a unique situation, her children have been taken away from her. She is struggling with this fact, and refuses to accept help in any shape form or fashion.
There are so many emotions that the reader experiences in this tale. I found Hannah’s situation so tragic. But I also found her to be so stubborn. There is a southern saying, “ you are biting your nose off to spite your face.” It basically means, don’t be so stubborn that you hurt yourself in the process. Hannah tended to do that on more than one occasion. She frustrated me. But, who is to say, that I would not have done the same thing. Anything to save my kids!! Hannah‘s heart was definitely in the right place, even if she didn’t go about it in the correct manner.
Then there is Hannah’s mother, Elaine. She is a piece of work. But I absolutely love the way this story turned out. You have to read this to find out! And believe me, you do not want to miss it!
The narrator, Eva Kaminsky, could not have been better!
Need a fantastic book from start to finish…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
MAGICAL MEET CUTE Author: Jean Meltzer Publication Date: August 27, 2024 ISBN: 9780778334415 Format: Trade Paperback Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing / MIRA Price: $18.99
From the author of the buzzy The Matzah Ball comes a romantic comedy for fans of Sally Thorne, about a lonely potter who drunkenly creates a golem doll of her perfect match—and meets the man of her dreams the next day. Is he the real deal…or did she truly summon a golem? Faye Kaplan used to be engaged. She also used to have a successful legal practice. But she much prefers her new life as a potter in Woodstock, New York. The only thing missing is the perfect guy. Not that she needs one. She’s definitely happy alone.
That is, until she finds her town papered with anti-Semitic flyers after yet another failed singles event at the synagogue. Desperate for comfort, Faye drunkenly turns to the only thing guaranteed to soothe her—pottery. A golem protector is just what her town needs…and adding all the little details to make him her ideal man can’t hurt, right? When a seriously hot stranger mysteriously turns up the next day, Greg seems too good to be true—if you ignore the fact that Faye hit him with her bike. And that he subsequently lost his memory… But otherwise, the man checks Every. Single. Box. Causing Faye to wonder if Greg’s sudden and spicy appearance might be anything but a coincidence.
About the Author:
JEAN MELTZER studied dramatic writing at NYU Tisch and has earned numerous awards for her work in television, including a daytime Emmy. She spent five years in rabbinical school before her chronic illness forced her to withdraw, and her father told her she should write a book? just not a Jewish one because no one reads those.
Faiga Kaplan, otherwise known as Faye to her friends, ran her hands down the long shaft of her latest clay creation. An earthenware vase—at least three feet in length and bearing a perfectly crafted slit for sunflowers at the top—lay on her studio table. Having been painted twice and forged through fire in her kiln, it was now ready for placement in her storefront window. All she had to do was get the heavy, hulking piece of pottery through the first floor of Magic Mud Pottery without breaking it.
Cautiously, she lifted the vase from the table. Peeking out from the sides, carefully managing her balance with each step, she creeped slowly past the tables and chairs of her studio, bumping over the threshold into the hallway, heading through the first floor. She was halfway through the old wooden building, by the center staircase, when she felt something mushy and wet beneath her left foot.
Faye didn’t need to look down.
She knew exactly what she had stepped in.
“Hillel.” Faye groaned, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.
Carefully, she put the vase down beside the staircase, turning her attention to inspect the damage now seeping through her pink sock.
“Hillel,” Faye called out again. “I’m serious. Get in here!”
Hillel, a hairless and toothless Chinese crested, peeked around the corner. Faye had adopted the pathetic-looking creature when he was ten years old. At the time, she had considered it a mitzvah, a good deed, in the wake of a dreadful breakup. She thought she could funnel all her love into this poor creature—a dog riddled with back acne and without a home—and he would adore her forever.
“I know you did this on purpose,” Faye said, lifting one foot up to display the mess.
Hillel twisted away from her, tail up, his tiny butthole pointed straight in her line of vision. She swore that dog could speak English.
She also knew that his constant accidents had nothing to do with tummy troubles. After all, Faye was a responsible pet owner. She had taken Hillel to the vet a dozen times, run every expensive test to see if there was something physically wrong with him, only to be told that the tiny monster was in perfectly good health. Indeed, the vet had promised her that Hillel would likely live another decade. No, he defecated all over her apartment for the same reason Stuart had called off their engagement. She was too much.
“Keep acting this way,” Faye warned, narrowing her eyes in his direction, “and I’ll send you to go live with Nelly. You can wear frilly doll dresses and be the guest of honor at her Second Glance Erotic Parties for the rest of your natural existence.”
Hillel strolled past her, unconcerned, before landing on a mess of blankets and pillow squares waiting for him by the storefront window.
Faye had made the tiny bed for Hillel there so he would be comfortable. She figured he could watch the people walking down Main Street, see the customers before they entered her store. It was also the sunniest, and therefore warmest, spot in her building, an absolute necessity for a dog without any fur. She did everything for Hillel. She gave him her best. Devoted her love, time, and energy to his well-being. And what did Hillel do in response?
Crap all over her.
The thought had crossed her mind more than once to return him to the shelter.
Faye never did, of course. No, as it turned out…no amount of snarling or defecating in high-traffic areas, or trying to bite her with his gummy, toothless mouth, would ever steer her heart away from the four-legged fur demon.
The reason being simple enough. She had made a promise to Hillel. She had stood outside Woodstock Animal Shelter, placed him safely in the front basket of her bike, and told him in she would care for him, and protect him—and never betray his love on a snowmobile in Lapland—until the bitter end.
Perhaps loving someone to the bitter end had always been her downfall.
Her mind wandered to her ex-fiancé, Stuart, when most applicably her nose wrinkled. The scent of dog feces was beginning to take up residence.
Faye hobbled on one foot up the stairs to the second floor. Finding her way to the bathtub, she set about cleaning up her foot.
For the last three years, Faye had been the sole proprietor of Magic Mud Pottery. She lived above her store and studio in a quaint one-bedroom apartment.
Magic Mud Pottery was one of a handful of quirky old buildings made of wood and painted in bright colors that dotted the bucolic downtown of Woodstock, New York. Set between large trees, and dotted by pride flags and double-hung windows, it was the type of town that, no matter the season, smelled like burning wood and cinnamon.
Her apartment was small, but as a single woman, she didn’t need much space. Plus, she had gotten an amazing price. On the second floor, a cozy bedroom sat towards the back of the building, overlooking a fenced-in yard and garden. In the front, a tiny living room was divided from a half kitchen by a counter. A bathroom rested in between.
As an old building, the layout—but especially the kitchen— was all types of weird. While the oven, stove, and sink were on the second floor, the refrigerator was too tall for the upstairs kitchen alcove. And so it sat downstairs, right behind the front counter, where Faye often rang up customers.
At first, it was a problem. Especially at night, as Faye often liked to sneak downstairs in nothing but her skivvies and have a late-night snack. But Faye quickly realized that most everyone who owned a business in downtown Woodstock lived elsewhere, and so, even though she had invested in curtains, she never bothered to use them.
Beyond all these things, she liked the quirkiness of the building. The fact it was strange and unusual. It reminded her of an apartment she had lived in on the Lower East Side while a young lawyer in Manhattan, with a shower in the kitchen and a bathroom outside the apartment, just down the hall.
Faye was finishing cleaning up when the bell above the front door to Magic Mud Pottery rang out.
“Faiga,” a voice called out moments later.
She recognized the voice as belonging to Nelly, who owned the building next door, where she ran the business Second Glance Treasures.
It was a gentle, lovely name for a store that was essentially extra storage space for a woman who had taken the hobby of hoarding to a professional capacity. Perhaps Faye was being too hard on the eccentric octogenarian. But No-Filter Nelly—as Faye sometimes called her behind her back—was a frequent, though not always welcome, visitor.
“One moment,” Faye called out.
Quickly, she finished drying off her foot. Spraying down her bathtub and the floor, she popped downstairs. Nelly was standing by the storefront window, arms crossed, her entire forehead wrinkling in displeasure.
“It smells like a porta-potty in here.” Nelly grimaced.
Faye huffed. “Hillel had an accident again.”
“Again?” Nelly looked towards the dog. “Maybe you should take him to the vet.” “I’ve taken him to the vet,” Faye reminded her for the ten thousandth time. Grabbing a towel and some pet odor remover, she bent down to the floor and began cleaning up his mess.
“Can I help you with something, Nelly?”
“I was wondering if you’re going to Single in the Sukkah tonight?” she asked.
“I’m not planning on it.”
“Why not?” Nelly said, following her. She always followed her. “Only twenty-four dollars a participant. For a good cause. Plus, you might meet someone.”
Faye tossed the turd in the trash. “I’m not interested in meeting anyone right now.”
“Why not?”
Faye slammed the lid shut. “You know the reason.” “Because you were dumped by your fiancé of seven years after a snowmobile accident in Lapland?”
Faye had first met Stuart Wutz during law school. After a seven-year engagement, the two-week escapade she had painstakingly planned to Lapland was supposed to be a pre-wedding getaway, a chance for them to have some fun before planning for their wedding, three months away, moved into hyperdrive.
Instead, everything about the trip had been a disaster.
Stuart complained constantly. About the cold. About the food. About his hemorrhoids. He nearly caused an international incident when he found out the hamburger he was eating was made of reindeer meat. But it wasn’t until that fateful snowmobile ride—when Stuart skidded out on a slick of ice, crashing into a snowy embankment—that their decade-long relationship came to an official end. Bringing her vehicle safely to a stop beside him, racing to check that he was okay, she was shocked when Stuart had stood up and lobbed his own attack.
You’re too much, Faye. Everything you do, everything you are… it’s just too much. No wonder your own mother couldn’t stand you.
The wedding was off. Faye was thirty-one years old, and having given Stuart the best years of her life—the best of her reproductive years, too—back to being single. It was more than betrayal. It was more than a hurt. It was an avalanche of pain that she had barely escaped from. And yet, she couldn’t completely blame Stuart for what had happened. He was simply a trigger point in a snowslip that had been building since her youth.
“So, you had one bad experience,” Nelly said.
“Not just one,” Faye grumbled.
“So, you had multiple bad experiences,” Nelly said, unfazed. “Lots of people hurt and disappointed you. Because of this, you give up on love forever?”
Faye spun around. “I don’t need a mother, Nelly!”
Her words pierced the air and turned into ice. “Everyone needs a mother,” Nelly said, simply.
Faye scoffed, hardening herself against the admission. Against the confession. She had already had a mother in her life, and she sucked. Some nights, she could still feel the pain in her wrist—in her fingers—from where her mom had permanently disabled her.
Faye twisted away from Nelly. “If you’re done pestering me about—”
Nelly cut her off. “So come for the synagogue. They always need money.”
“How about I just write them a check and spend the night reading a book and eating hard kosher salami by myself?”
Nelly grimaced. “This is fun for you?”
“Yes, Nelly.” Faye threw her hands up, exasperated. “This is fun for me. Because I like being alone. More important, I’m better alone. I have no interest in meeting a man, starting a romantic relationship, or getting married. Going to a Singles in the Sukkah event would be the equivalent of false advertising.”
Faye made her way back through her pottery studio. Picking up her vase, she turned to place it in her storefront window. And that was when she saw it. The vase she had thought was perfect…had a tiny bubble at the bottom.
“Haman’s hat,” Faye huffed. She tried not to use curse words.
“What’s wrong?” Nelly asked.
Faye shook her head. “I must have missed an air bubble before drying.”
Clay held memory. If you did something wrong at any part of the process, it would be reflected in the final work. A fingerprint at the edge. A lip all misshapen and wonky. A warp or scratch in the otherwise smooth facade, or worse…the entire thing exploding, shattering completely, when placed into the kiln for firing. Clay, contrary to popular belief, was not an easy material to work with.
“I’m just gonna throw it out,” Faye said, attempting to move it out of her window.
“Wha!” Nelly stopped her with both hands. “Why would you throw this out? You’ve already spent time to make it.”
“Because it’s awful,” Faye snapped back. “No one is going to want a vase with a bubble sticking out of it!” And because looking at that bubble was a constant reminder of all the things her mother had stolen from her.
Faye was only seventeen years old when it happened. When her mother—in another one of her random and totally unjustified rages—woke her up from a sound sleep because she had accidently left clay out on the kitchen table. Grabbing Faye by the wrist and pulling her out of bed, she dragged her down the hall to clean up the supposed mess. Faye could still recall the sensation of her hand being twisted the wrong way, the sound of it snapping as the bone broke. But most of all, she remembered screaming for her father to help her.
The abuse Faye had endured as a child changed her. She lost the scholarship to a prestigious art school in Manhattan where she was planning to study ceramics. She became wholly focused on protecting herself, remaining independent… Changing paths, she became a lawyer instead. And when she met Stuart, she thought she had found the safe, unconditional type of love that she read about in her romance novels.
Instead, her clay memory bubbled up and formed blisters all over their love. She became someone unrecognizable. Desperate to keep Stuart happy—desperate to prove she was someone loveable and worthwhile—she lost herself completely. The break up had been hard, but when she looked at her life now, at Woodstock and Magic Mud Pottery, she was grateful. What life had taught her, most of all, was that she had to protect herself.
When maths teacher Zoe Swift meets the irresistibly funny and charming Jack Damon at her friends’ wedding, sparks fly faster than you can say the square root of sixty-nine.
And when Jack turns up at her school, newly recruited as a supply teacher, she can’t ignore the intense effect he has on her when their paths cross in the corridors. But Zoe is still reeling from her husband’s recent jaw-dropping betrayal and adjusting to life as a single mum to two teenage kids. She’s not sure if she’s ready to open her heart to a fling with a younger man.
As Zoe and Jack’s connection grows deeper, their undeniable chemistry and Jack’s steadfast support help Zoe rediscover the good things in life: her love of a good dance, the soothing power of takeout, the secret thrill of receiving a well-timed chicken emoji and the wonder of multiple orgasms…
But with complicated family dynamics and co-parenting with her ex to manage, a sizeable age gap, and Jack’s uncertainties about his future to factor in, she’s about to find out that love isn’t always a simple equation.
Can Zoe accept this gift from the universe and take a chance on a far-from-textbook romance?
Get ready to laugh, cry and fall head-over-heels in love with this emotional and uplifting romantic comedy about healing after heartbreak, finding the courage to pursue your dreams, and recognizing true love when it’s staring you right in the face. An uplifting, unmissable listen for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi McFarlane, Beth O’Leary, Sex Education and Teachers.
Review
Zoe just discovered her husband has been cheating on her…with her friend! Needless to say, she is devastated and having a hard time. Enter Jack! Jack and Zoe hit it off from the very start.
Jack is a great character! He is strong and steady and he knows just what Zoe needs and when she needs it. He sees her struggling with life and kids!
Then there is Zoe! She did not deserve the hand dealt to her. But she comes into her own.
I enjoyed these two together and their banter is just adorable! There are several places that I laughed out loud!
The narrator, Abigail Hardiman, is cute as a button! And she even did the children well!
Need an adorably funny romance…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
Award-winning author Dawn Kurtagich masterfully weaves a captivating tale of suspense and horror, in which Dr. Mina Murray returns to the windswept shores of Wales to help her childhood friend fight the mysterious illness that plagues her. When the lines between reality and delusion begin to blur, Mina must face off against a monstrous legacy—or be consumed herself.
Beware what waits in the shadows…
With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray’s carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, she returns home to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she’s left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy’s symptoms mirror those of her mysterious amnesiac patient hundreds of miles away.
With nothing but an untreatable sickness connecting the two women, and with Lucy’s life on the line, Mina finds herself asking questions and being drawn ever-deeper into a web of secrets, missing girls, and the powerful, nameless force at its center—one that has been haunting her for years.
As terrible, ancient truths begin to reveal themselves, Mina prepares to confront her own darkest secrets, and with them, an evil beyond comprehension. Together with a group of smart, savvy women, Mina seizes one last, desperate chance to stop the cycle that began so long ago. But there are dangers to inviting the attentions of what might not be a man, but a monster…
Review
Dr. Mina Murray has just received a horrible email from her old friend, Lucy. These two have lost touch but it doesn’t stop Mina from dropping everything (including her new case) and running to Lucy! What she finds terrifies her beyond belief.
I really did not know what I had gotten myself into when I started this tale. I was hooked when it started in a psychiatric hospital with a strange case! And it just snowballed from there!
This is not my usual genre. I do enjoy thrillers…but this one is a bit of a horror story! I will let you read this to find out!!
I really enjoyed the folklore running throughout this tale. Add in the weird disease and the kick butt women…and you have a powerful tale that just might keep you awake at night!
Need an intense read with a kick…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
THE BERLIN APARTMENT: A NOVEL Author: Bryn Turnbull Publication Date: August 27, 2024 Publisher: MIRA $18.99 USD | $23.99 CAD
Book Summary:
“Wholly immersive and impeccably researched, Bryn Turnbull’s tale brings the time vividly to life.” —Toronto Star on The Paris Deception For fans of Kate Quinn and Kristin Hannah, this sweeping love story follows a young couple whose lives are irrevocably changed when they’re separated overnight by the construction of the Berlin Wall. Berlin 1961: When Uli Neumann proposes to Lise Bauer, she has every reason to accept. He offers her love, respect, and a life beyond the strict bounds of the East German society in which she was raised — which she longs to leave more than anything. But only two short days after their engagement, Lise and Uli are torn violently apart when barbed wire is rolled across Berlin, splitting the city into two hostile halves: capitalist West Berlin, an island of western influence isolated far beyond the iron curtain; and the socialist East, a country determined to control its citizens by any means necessary.
Soon, Uli and his friends in West Berlin hatch a plan to get Lise and her unborn child out of East Germany, but as distance and suspicion bleed into their lives and as weeks turn to months, how long can true love survive in the divided city?
Review
Lise and Uli are in love. He has even asked her to marry him. They both attend college in western Berlin. But one day, shortly after they became engaged, they are ripped apart by the barbed wire placed in the middle of the city of Berlin. Lise on one side and Uli on the other.
So many emotions go through you as you read this book…And desperation is one of the top ones! This young couple did everything in their power to get back to each other after the wall was put into place. Uli even starts a tunnel. He is determined to get back to Lise. But not only that, Lise lost her all of her dreams. Not only did she lose Uli, Lise could not even continue her studies to be a physician.
Then there is the ending of this story. Y’all! It just about broke me in places. And I am not going to tell you because I do not want to give anything away. Just know there are sacrifices and drama you will not soon forget.
Need an emotional and fantastic historical fiction tale…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
About the Author:
BRYN TURNBULL is the internationally bestselling author of The Woman Before Wallis. Equipped with a master of letters in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews, a master of professional communication from Ryerson University and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from McGill University, Bryn focuses on finding stories of women lost within the cracks of the historical record. She lives in Toronto.
Critics have compared her work to that of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, but J. California Cooper has a warm, witty style that’s definitely her own. Each of her short stories is a gem of downhome wisdom, polished with a bit of gossip, some heartbreak, and lots of humor.
In “Funny Valentines” a “simple” woman draws one heart on Valentine’s Day and divides it among the people she loves, until all but one of them lies in the cemetery. “Living” portrays a man in midlife crisis who leaves his loving wife and pleasant country home for a taste of high city living and returns with a new perspective on life. “Spooks” is the tongue-in-cheek tale of a man who masquerades as a ghost in order to outsmart an unscrupulous suitor and win the heart of a vulnerable widow.
Sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and always touching, J. California Cooper’s characters enlighten us and enrich us as they find love in unlikely places. The warm narrations will give listeners a sense of chatting with nosy but well-meaning neighbors over the back fence.
Review
Now, short stories are not usually my thing. But, these are very different and yet they are alike.
All of these stories are about love. Homemade love is the best title for this collection. It is about love at home and then some!
I really felt like I was sitting at someone’s table over coffee and listening to their life stories. Some are better than others but these just encompass life, love, happiness, dissatisfaction and disappointment
I received this from the publisher for a honest review.
Inspired by the real mothers and grandmothers who spoke out against Argentina’s military dictatorship, The Disappeared is an award-winning debut about identity, family secrets, and those who endured decades of hardship to expose the truth.
In 1976 Buenos Aires, Lorena Ledesma is a housewife with dangerous secrets living under Argentina’s rising military dictatorship. When she and her husband are torn from their home by the paramilitary in the middle of the night, their two-year-old son is left behind with Lorena’s mother, Esme. There’s never any record of the arrest. Desperate to locate Lorena, Esme joins an underground group of mothers who are investigating the disappearances of their own missing children. But when they make a devastating discovery—that several of their kidnapped daughters have given birth in prison—a new kind of pursuit begins: the search for their stolen grandchildren.
Nearly three decades later, thousands of miles away, American adoptee Rachel Sprague learns she has a biological brother from another country—somewhere she has never visited. But the truth goes far deeper than the results of a DNA test, and revealing her origins will expose painful family secrets that could put Rachel’s loved ones in jeopardy.
A heart-wrenching drama that spans thirty years, The Disappeared is inspired by the true stories of the mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an extraordinary group of women who, for more than forty-five years, have been searching for children of the “disappeared”—those captured as dissidents during Argentina’s Dirty War.
Review
Lorena is a housewife in Argentina in 1976. One evening the military comes to her home and kidnaps her and her husband, leaving behind her young child. Nearly 3 decades later, her mother, Esme, is still searching for her.
A heart-wrenching drama that spans thirty years, The Disappeared is inspired by the true stories of the mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an extraordinary group of women who, for more than forty-five years, have been searching for children of the “disappeared”—those captured as dissidents during Argentina’s Dirty War.
After Lorena was taken, Esme raised her son. Esme never gave up looking for Lorena. And when she discovered that Lorena had another child in captivity, she was determined to find that child. And what she discovered will surprise you!
Y’all! This tale will have you crying, screaming and wanting to scratch someone’s eyes out. I had no idea this actually happened. And some of these families never knew what happened to their loved ones.
Need a story which will have all your feelings in a jumble…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.
I received this novel from the author for a honest review.
Diamonds and danger dazzle in Ciesielski’s latest enchanting romp through post-war Europe as estranged spouses and jewel thieves hunt an elusive Valkyrie tiara.
November 12, 1918. It was a match made in champagne-soaked heaven, but all too soon the bubbles dried up, and Esme Fox awakens the morning after celebrating the end of the Great War to find herself shockingly and accidentally married. She gathers her belongings and slips out before her new husband can stop her. After all, she knows it’s best to leave before he does.
Four years later, Jasper Truitt, after having made a name for himself in the underground world of jewel thieves, is on the hunt for a valuable heirloom: a one-of-a-kind winged tiara—the last Valkyrie tiara ever created. So it’s with great surprise that he discovers it at a charity event atop the head of a woman he’s never forgotten. His long-lost wife . . . who happens to be pursuing the tiara for a vengeful opera diva desperate to obtain the jewel for herself.
The reunion is cut short when Esme vanishes—again—but their separation is temporary. With a hitman on their heels and a deadline looming, the pair find themselves in an epic game of cat and mouse across Europe following leads from the French Riviera to a shop of wonders in Venice, a fairy-tale castle in Bavaria, and a veritable circus thrown by a champagne heiress, all before a dramatic horseback flight through the French countryside.
In the end only one can win, and with both of their hearts on the line, the winner may well turn out to be the loser.
In her latest glamorous historical romance, J’nell Ciesielski spins a sparkling story filled with her signature snappy dialogue and vivid atmosphere that will keep you listening late into the night to see what happens next.
Review
Esme finds herself married after a night full of champagne celebrating the end of the Great War. She sneaks off and leaves her newly married husband, Jasper. Little does Esme know that four years later, she and Jasper will be chasing the same tiara.
Esme is a no nonsense gal! She is not gonna be tied down! And she is not gonna lose! But don’t worry, Jasper gives her a run for her money! He knows exactly what strings to pull to get his way. He even lands Esme in jail!
I loved the banter between these two characters. Esme just cracks me up! But it also helps that the narrator, Ann Marie Gideon, is amazing. I swear! She is Esme!
Need a good historical fiction tale with two criminal characters…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan returns in P. J. Tracy’s City of Secrets, the next book in the series praised by the New York Times Book Review: “Tracy seems to have found her literary sweet spot.”
Los Angeles Police Detective Margaret Nolan and her partner have worked a lot of different cases, ones where things aren’t always as they appear. And it’s Nolan’s job to find the truth in the darkness around her. When they’re called to the scene of what looks like a fatal car-jacking, Nolan soon realizes her victim was a founder of a company about to sell for millions, and within a day of his death, his partner’s wife is abducted. As Nolan learns more about the victim and his life, she gets pulled into a disturbing world of sex, violence, and big business; and an even darker world, where whispers of an Angel of Death are beginning to surface.
One of today’s finest crime writers, P. J. Tracy has created a series that is a rich and authentic portrait of LA, filled with the tragedy and optimism of her multi-layered characters and a story guaranteed to keep listeners enthralled.
Review
Los Angeles Police Detective Margaret Nolan has been called to a murder. At first it looks like a car jacking. But the more she investigates, the more disturbing this case becomes.
This is part of a series. I have only read one in this series, Desolation Canyon. I enjoyed this one more! I enjoyed the hunt for the killer on this one. Now, like all P.J. Tracy books, they tend to be a bit slow. It is police procedure. But, this one kept me intrigued all the way through. There is a murder, kidnapping, embezzlement…it’s all in here!
I really enjoyed the narrator, Abby Craden. She made this story move so smoothly!
Need a good police procedural tale…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest opinion.
reecaspieces 