Book Review: The Liar Next Door by Nicola Marsh

 

Kindle Edition, 321 pages
Expected publication: August 23rd 2021 by Bookouture

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We live in a close-knit community. Thirty houses surrounding a square of garden that is perfect for our kids. We congregate here on major holidays, each family bringing a plate and sharing food and conversation. It’s in the garden that I first met her. The woman who would worm her way into my family and piece by piece tear it apart…

I should have known something was wrong from the very beginning. She seemed perfect in so many ways: she floated through the baby shower, a warm smile on her face, chatting to strangers with ease. At first I thought it was sweet that she offered to help me, that she made an effort to get to know us, that she brought over games and knew Luna’s favorite foods… I had no idea that I couldn’t trust another mother…

I should have known that someone would eventually discover the secret in my marriage. Why I never believe a word my husband says—and why he shouldn’t believe me. But how could a woman I only just met be the one to find it out?

If I’d known, I’d have called the police sooner.

And maybe I’d have prevented that dreadful scene. Every neighbor peering through their curtains as the sirens wailed in our street.

I could have protected my family.

I could have stopped what happened next…

                                                          MY REVIEW:

The Liar Next Door by Nicola Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow! I read this in 1 sitting and couldn't put it down.
Frankie is married and they have a daughter. He had cheated a few years ago but she forgave him. Now they are becoming friends with their neighbors and there is a gender reveal party for the couple next door that starts the book off. We find out Frankie had been married before, to walter and they talk once a year.
Celeste just moved into the neighborhood and is eager to be friends with Frankie and have her daughter and Frankie's daughter be best friends.
As we get to know all of these people you are wondering who do you trust. Are they who they seem to be. We know there is some blackmailing going on as well.
Things are not always as they seem and the ending, just wow.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC to review.

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                                                           Nicola Marsh


Website
http://www.nicolamarsh.com

Twitter
NicolaMarsh

Genre
Romance, Mystery and Thrillers, Women's Fiction


URL
https://www.goodreads.com/nicola_marsh


USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning Australian author Nicola Marsh writes feel-good fiction…with a twist.

She has published 70 books and sold over 8 million copies worldwide.

She currently writes contemporary romance for Penguin Random House Berkley USA, domestic suspense novels for Hachette UK's Bookouture, and rural romance for Harper Collins Australia's Mira imprint.

She's a Waldenbooks, Bookscan, Amazon, iBooks and Barnes & Noble bestseller, a 2013 RBY and National Readers' Choice Award winner, and a multiple finalist for awards including the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, HOLT Medallion, Booksellers' Best, Golden Quill, Laurel Wreath, More than Magic and has won several CataRomance Reviewers' Choice Awards.

She loves chatting on social media!

Book Review: A Terrible Fall of Angels by Laurell K. Hamilton

 

                                                   Kindle Edition, 1st edition, 400 pages
                                             Expected publication: August 17th 2021 by Berkley
                                                      Buy on Amazon

Angels walk among us, but so do other unearthly beings in this brand new series by #1 New York Times Bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton.

Meet Detective Zaniel Havelock, a man with the special ability to communicate directly with angels. A former trained Angel speaker, he devoted his life to serving both the celestial beings and his fellow humans with his gift, but a terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind. Now he’s a cop who is still working on the side of angels. But where there are angels, there are also demons. There’s no question that there’s evil at work when he’s called in to examine the murder scene of a college student—but is it just the evil that one human being can do to another, or is it something more? When demonic possession is a possibility, even angelic protection can only go so far. The race is on to stop a killer before he finds his next victim, as Zaniel is forced to confront his own very personal demons, and the past he never truly left behind.

The first in a new series from the author of the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.

                                                         MY REVIEW:

A Terrible Fall of Angels by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Detective Zaniel Havelock is a man with the special ability to communicate directly with angels. A former trained Angel speaker. A terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind. Now he’s a cop who is still working on the side of angels. But where there are angels, there are also demons. There’s no question that there’s evil at work when he’s called in to examine the murder scene of a college student. Zaniel is forced to confront his own very personal demons, and the past he never truly left behind.
Zaniel's marriage is also on the rocks and he wants to mske it work. I could not stand his wife. She seems a little self centered to me and I have a feeling that we will find out more about her in the books to come and what makes her tick. Zaniel is one of those guys that you want to meet in real life and see if he is to true to be real.
This is the first book of a new series and I can't wait to get reading more of this series.
Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC to review.

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                                  Laurell K. Hamilton



Born in Heber Springs, Arkansas, The United States
February 19

Website
http://www.laurellkhamilton.com/

Twitter
lkhamilton

Genre
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror, Romance

Influences
Robert E. Howard, Robert B. Parker ...more


URL
https://www.goodreads.com/lkhamilton


Laurell K. Hamilton is one of the leading writers of paranormal fiction. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Hamilton writes the popular Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels and the Meredith Gentry series. She is also the creator of a bestselling comic book series based on her Anita Blake novels and published by Marvel Comics. Hamilton is a full-time writer and lives in the suburbs of St. Louis with her family.

Book Review: I Let Him In by Jill Childs

 

                                                     Kindle Edition
                                                Expected publication: August 17th 2021
                                                     Buy on Amazon

Last night I dreamt about the past for the first time in years. I thought I was over it. I thought I’d finally learned to block it out. But I’m right back there, all over again, inside the house, and I’m afraid...

When Louise Taylor is hit by a car as she cycles home in the rain following a fight with her boyfriend, she’s left hurt, confused, and housebound in her cramped apartment while she recovers. And worse, something tells her it wasn’t an accident.

Desperate to keep busy and distract herself from the flashbacks to her childhood that are beginning to resurface, she hires Edward – a friend of a friend – to repaint her shabby living room and, hopefully, keep the past at bay.

But when Edward arrives – quiet, considerate and handsome – Lou instantly feels like they’ve met before, that she can trust him. Tired of carrying the guilt alone after all these years, Lou tells Edward her secret. And to her surprise, he doesn’t pull away. He doesn’t gasp, or grimace or preach about what she did. And Lou is so relieved to finally be free of this burden at last.

Until she learns that Edward has a secret of his own. One he’s been waiting a very, very long time to tell...

                                                        MY REVIEW:

I Let Him In by Jill Childs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Louise Taylor is hit by a car, while cycling home, at night. It came from behind her so she didn't see the car or who was driving. She woke up in a hospital bed with a broken leg and her head hurt. Her sister takes her to her apartment to recover. she is the type of person always on the move and is a journalist who always lives dangerously so she has a hard time being layed up. She had just broken up with her boyfriend also, to the dismay of her sister.
She meets Ed , who is going to paint her apartment and they spend a lot of time with each other. They are also keeping a secret from years ago. During their exchange we do find out each other's secret. Neither one thinks they deserve to be happy or be in a relationship.
Just when you think they can be together then something happens to tear them apart. Then bam we are hit with something new going on which leads to a twist that I never saw coming.
This book is my favorite for this year. I could not put it down and read it in 1 sitting.
Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC to review.

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                                                           Jill Childs

Twitter
author_jill





eJill has always loved stories - real and imaginary. She's spent 30 years travelling the world as a journalist, living overseas and reporting wherever the news took her. She's now made her home in London with her husband and twin girls who love stories as much as she does.

Although she's covered everything from earthquakes and floods, riots and wars, she's found some of the most extraordinary stories right here at home - in the secrets and lies she imagines behind closed doors on ordinary streets, just like yours.

Book Review: Blind Tiger by Sandra Brown

 

                                                       Kindle Edition, 448 pages
                                    Published August 3rd 2021 by Grand Central Publishing
                                                 buy from Amazon

The year 1920 comes in with a roar in this rousing and suspenseful novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown. Prohibition is the new law of the land, but murder, mayhem, lust, and greed are already institutions in the Moonshine Capitol of Texas.

Thatcher Hutton, a war-weary soldier on the way back to his cowboy life, jumps from a moving freight train to avoid trouble . . . and lands in more than he bargained for. On the day he arrives in Foley, Texas, a local woman goes missing. Thatcher, the only stranger in town, is suspected of her abduction, and worse. Standing between him and exoneration are a corrupt mayor, a crooked sheriff, a notorious cathouse madam, a sly bootlegger, feuding moonshiners . . . and a young widow whose soft features conceal an iron will.

What was supposed to be a fresh start for Laurel Plummer turns to tragedy. Left destitute but determined to dictate her own future, Laurel plunges into the lucrative regional industry, much to the dislike of the good ol’ boys, who have ruled supreme. Her success quickly makes her a target for cutthroat competitors, whose only code of law is reprisal. As violence erupts, Laurel and—now deputy—Thatcher find themselves on opposite sides of a moonshine war, where blood flows as freely as whiskey.

MY REVIEW:

Blind Tiger by Sandra Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is set in the 1920's during Prohibiton. Blind Tiger is another word for Speakeasy. A speakeasy is a place where alcohol beverages are sold illegally. A place of business would have a backroom that only certain people would know about. Reading about all this I did learn a few things.
Thatcher Hutton is a war soldier and on his way home he stows away on a train and this is where his life becomes complicated.
Laurel Plummer is married to a man who was in the war and came home a different person. He uproots her and their baby to go live with his dad, who didn't even know if his son was alive or dead.
The town in Texas is full of a lot of criminals. A corrupt mayor, a crooked sheriff, a cathouse, and moonshiners, which makes this full of adventure.
I loved the sheriff, even though he is crooked. He doesn't want to be and we learn more about him throughout the book.
Laurel and her father in law made me chuckle a few times and the interaction between them was of a great relationship.
Thank you to Grand Central and NetGalley for the ARC to review.

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                                                      Sandra Brown




Born in Waco, TX, The United States

Website
http://www.sandrabrown.net/

Twitter
sandrabrown_NYT

Genre
Mystery & Thrillers, Suspense, Romance

Influences
Oscar Wilde, Mary Stewart, Taylor Caldwell, Evelyn Anthony...too many ...more


URL
https://www.goodreads.com/sandra_brown



Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Sandra Brown is the author of more than sixty New York Times bestsellers, including STING (2016), FRICTION (2015), MEAN STREAK (2014), DEADLINE(2013), & LOW PRESSURE (2012), LETHAL (2011).

Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy novels, bringing the number of copies of her books in print worldwide to upwards of eighty million. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages.

In 2009 Brown detoured from romantic suspense to write, Rainwater, a much acclaimed, powerfully moving historical fiction story about honor and sacrifice during the Great Depression.

Book Review: The Dating Dare by Jayci Lee

 

Kindle Edition, 1st edition, 320 pages

                                              Published August 3rd 2021 by St. Martin's Griffin

                                                                Buy from Amazon 

With witty characters and heartrending romance, Jayci Lee, author of A Sweet Mess, returns with The Dating Dare—where two people might just find out how hard it is to resist falling in love with the right person.

No serious relationships. This is the one rule Tara Park made for herself and it has been working swimmingly, thank you very much. The occasional fling is fine, especially since she’s busy with Weldon Brewery. But when Seth Kim, temptation personified and her best friend’s new brother-in-law walks into her life, Tara might be willing to bend her golden rule…but only for four dates—the four dates she agreed to after a few good rounds of beer and a game of truth or dare. It’ll be fun. No biggie.

Seth Kim can’t believe Tara agreed to his dating dare. He’s leaving for a new job in Paris in a month and a no-strings attached fling seemed like a nice little distraction for both… But their secret dates, while sweet and sexy, always hit roadblocks straight out of a romantic comedy. Thankfully, their non-dates and chance meetings are smoother, frequent, and heated. However, the more Seth sees of Tara, the less willing he is to let her go—and what was supposed to be a little fun game turns into something that neither of them are ready for.

But sometimes, the best things in life are the ones we never see coming.

                                            MY REVIEW:

The Dating Dare by Jayci Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fun and quick read.
I enjoyed Tara and Seth. They both have come from relationships that made them feel unworthy and they now know better but don't want to be another relationship like that.
Tara met Seth at her best friend's wedding, who married Seth's brother. They were attracted to each other but wanted a friends with benefit relationship. Especially since Seth is moving to Paris in a month. They are also keeping this to themselves and don't want anyone else to know they are involved so they sneak around.
Thank you to St. Martin's and NetGalley for the ARC to review.

View all my reviews

                                                                          Jayci Lee
Website
http://www.JayciLee.com

Twitter
authorjaycilee

Genre
Romance, Chick Lit, Contemporary




Jayci Lee writes poignant, sexy, and laugh-out-loud romance every free second she can scavenge. She lives in sunny California with her tall-dark-and-handsome husband, two amazing boys with boundless energy, and a fluffy rescue whose cuteness is a major distraction. At times, she cannot accommodate real life because her brain is full of drool worthy heroes and badass heroines clamoring to come to life.Because of all the books demanding to be written, Jayci writes full-time now, and is semi-retired from her fifteen-year career as a defense litigator. She loves food, wine, and travelling, and incidentally so do her characters. Books have always helped her grow, dream, and heal, and she hopes her books will do the same for you.