Book Review: The Editor by Steven Rowley
Book Review: The Editor by Steven Rowley The lowdown from Goodreads Publication Date April 2nd, 2019 After years of trying to make it as a writer in 1990s New York City, James Smale finally sells his novel to an editor at a major publishing house: none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Jackie–or Mrs. Onassis, as she’s known in the office–has fallen in love with James’s candidly autobiographical novel, one that exposes his own dysfunctional family. But when the book’s forthcoming publication threatens to unravel already fragile relationships, both within his family and with his partner, James finds that he can’t bring himself to finish the manuscript. Jackie and James develop…
In This Ground by Beth Castrodale
In This Ground by Beth Castrodale The lowdown from Goodreads Publication Date September 18, 2018 Just as his indie-rock band was poised to make it big, Ben Dirjery traded it all in for fatherhood and the stability of a job at Bolster Hill Cemetery. Now closing in on fifty, the former guitarist finds himself divorced and at loose ends, and still haunted by the tragic death of his former band’s lead singer, who is buried, literally, under Ben’s feet. Then Ben’s daughter begins questioning a past he has tried to bury. If he can face her questions, he might finally put to rest his guilt over his bandmate’s death, and…
Love in Catalina Cove (Catalina Cove #1) by Brenda Jackson Book Review
Love in Catalina Cove (Catalina Cove #1) by Brenda Jackson Book Review The lowdown from Goodreads Publication Date October 30th, 2018 In her brand-new series, Brenda Jackson welcomes you to Catalina Cove, where even the biggest heartbreaks can be healed… In the wake of a devastating teen pregnancy that left her childless and heartbroken, Vashti Alcindor left Catalina Cove, Louisiana, with no plans to return. Now, over a decade later, Vashti reluctantly finds herself back in her hometown after inheriting her aunt’s B and B. Her homecoming gets off to a rocky start when the new sheriff, Sawyer Grisham, pulls her over for speeding, and things go downhill from there.…
The Long Way Home by Kevin Bannister Book Review
The Long Way Home by Kevin Bannister Book Review The lowdown from Goodreads Publication Date September 12th, 2016 Set in the turbulent times of the War of Independence, ‘The Long Way Home’ follows the lives of Thomas Peters and Murphy Steele who are friends, former slaves, fellows-in-arms and leaders of the Black Brigade. Their real-life story is an epic adventure tale as they battle bounty hunters, racism, poverty and epidemic in their adopted country after the war. ‘The Long Way Home’ has resonated with readers around the world as an unforgettable account of courage, hope and determination triumphing over despair and injustice. Thomas Peters, thoughtful and charismatic, and Murphy Steele,…
The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos Book Review
The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos Book Review Publication Date October 9, 2018 The lowdown from Goodreads On a freezing night in January 1941, a little Jewish girl is found on the steps of an apartment building in Bucharest. With Romania recently allied with the Nazis, the Jewish population is in grave danger, undergoing increasingly violent persecution. The girl is placed in an orphanage and eventually adopted by a wealthy childless couple who name her Natalia. As she assimilates into her new life, she all but forgets the parents who were forced to leave her behind. They are even further from her mind when Romania falls under Soviet…
Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan Book Review
Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan Book Review The lowdown from Goodreads Publication Date October 2, 2018 From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.” When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and…
The Removes by Tatjana Soli Book Review
The Removes by Tatjana Soli Book Review The lowdown from Goodreads Publication Date June 12, 2018 From the New York Times bestselling author Tatjana Soli, an expansive and transfixing new novel set on the American frontier Spanning the years of the first great settlement of the west, The Removes tells the intertwining stories of fifteen-year-old Anne Cummins, frontierswoman Libbie Custer, and Libbie’s husband, the Civil War hero George Armstrong Custer. When Anne survives a surprise attack on her family’s homestead, she is thrust into a difficult life she never anticipated—living among the Sioux as both a captive and, eventually, a member of the tribe. Libbie, too, is thrown into a brutal, unexpected life when…
Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear Book Review
Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear Book Review The lowdown from Goodreads Publication Date August 14, 2018 WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW In 1998, Maryanne Doyle disappeared and Dad knew something about it? Maryanne Doyle was never seen again. WHAT I ACTUALLY KNOW In 1998, Dad lied about knowing Maryanne Doyle. Alice Lapaine has been found strangled near Dad’s pub. Dad was in the local area for both Maryanne Doyle’s disappearance and Alice Lapaine’s murder – FACT Connection? Trust cuts both ways . . . what do you do when it’s gone? Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear Book Review Honestly, I don’t read a ton of police procedurals, preferring…
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Book Review
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Book Review The lowdown from Goodreads Publication Date August 14, 2018 For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become…
The Last Thing I Told You by Emily Arsenault Book Review
The Last Thing I Told You by Emily Arsenault Book Review The lowdown from Goodreads Publication Date July 24th, 2018 Therapist Dr. Mark Fabian is dead, bludgeoned in his office. But that doesn’t stop former patient Nadine Raines from talking to him — in her head. Why did she come back to her hometown after so many years away? Everyone here thinks she’s crazy. And she has to admit, they might have good reason to think so. She committed a shockingly violent act when she was sixteen and has never really been able to explain that dark impulse, even to Fabian. Now that Fabian’s dead, why is she still trying? …