"After Anna" by Lisa Scottoline

"After Anna" by Lisa Scottoline

We all have defining moments in our lives by which we measure time. Some are good… some not so much. Before marriage, after marriage; before children, after children; before a divorce, after a divorce; before the child you have not seen in almost 17 years returns to your life and after.

Maggie, Anna’s Mother, is estatic when Anna contacts her. She has not seen Anna since she was six months old. Not since she had a breakdown and was hospitalized; during which her husband returned to France with Anna. French courts, lies and her ex-husbands wealth kept Maggie from seeing Anna or even receiving a photograph all this time. After the death of Anna’s father, step-mother and step-brothers in a plane crash, she wanted to reconnect with her mother and soon moves in with her.

Soon, Maggie’s idyllic life with her husband, Noah, and 10-year-old step son Caleb begins to fall apart. Anna, now a multi-millionaire, spends lots of money without asking and stays out late without calling to let anyone know where she is. When no adults are watching, she mistreats Caleb. Soon, she begins to accuse Noah of inappropriate behavior and even files a Protection from Abuse against him.

But who do you believe? Who do you trust? Your husband of two years or your new found 17-year-old daughter? And where do you turn when that daughter turns up dead on the porch of your husband’s new rental house and all evidence points to him as the killer?

Lisa Scottoline’s novels are always, well-written, fast-paced and full of twists. “After Anna” was no exception.

Publication Date: April 10, 2018

Genre:  Suspense, Thriller, Mystery

Cover: Great

Rating: 4 stars

Source:  I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book!

#AfterAnna #NetGalley

"Out of the Ordinary (Apart from the Crowd Book #2)" by Jen Turano

"Out of the Ordinary (Apart from the Crowd Book #2)" by Jen Turano

Gertrude Cadwalader is employed by Mrs. Davenport as a companion, but she is so much more: model of Mrs. Davenport’s strange hair and clothing designs and returner of stolen goods. Mrs. Davenport is not a thief, not really, as she doesn’t keep the things she steals, but tasks Gertrude with returning them. This setup works pretty well until Mrs. Davenport swipes some things during a party on board the Sinclair yacht. Later, Gertrude is caught by the Sinclair matriarch while trying to return those items.  Things become a bit tricky as Gertrude is friends with the Sinclair heir, Harrison, who happens to be quite handsome.

I loved the setting of the yacht and the part of the story that takes place on it.

I also loved the theme of “God doesn’t expect His children to live ordinary lives, but extraordinary ones.” Such a great reminder to hand your “life over to God, trusting Him to lead the way to the path of extraordinary.”

I won’t lie, I would have loved a bit more of Mrs. Davenport and her mystery. It played such a small part in the story and unfolded rather quickly.

Also, I was surprised to find this is the second book in the series as the print copy had no number on the cover, spine or cover page (it did say “Apart From the Crowd”).

This is my first Jen Turano book, but it won’t be my last. She is an excellent Christian Fiction writer and the book was first-rate.

Publication Date: November 7, 2017

Genre:  Religious, Christian Fiction, Historical, Romance

Cover:  Lovely (would have enjoyed  seeing Gertrude in one of Mrs. Davenport’s outlandish outfits… perhaps on the back.)

Rating: 4 stars

Source:  I received this book from the publisher, Bethany House, in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book!

“Two Girls Down” by Louisa Luna

“Two Girls Down” by Louisa Luna

She’ll only be a minute. That’s what Jamie Brandt thought when she carelessly left her two girls in the car while dashing into K-Mart to buy a birthday gift. An action that she later regretted when she returned to her car a few minutes later to find her girls missing.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book! When I began, I thought, OK, another deadbeat parent who pays absolutely no attention to her children and whines when something bad happens to them.

In the first few pages of the book, Jamie Brandt declares she “was not a bad mother”. Really? Curse words, alcohol and drugs just to make it through a short drive and kid’s birthday party? I hated her from the first few pages of the book.

Cue Alice Vega. She is called in by Jamie’s wealthy and much more high class Aunt to find the girls as her specialty is locating missing children. Alice enlists the aid of Max Caplan, a local disgraced policeman turned private investigator.

The book details their attempts to find the girls and those responsible. I don’t want to give anything away, but it was fantastic! I could not put it down. The twists and turns to get to the end were great and the reasoning behind the disappearance was a unique twist.

My only issue with the book was that the author mentioned three security guards at K-Mart. I have never known a K-Mart to have three security guards on duty at one time!

In the end, I cut Jamie some slack. Mother of the year? No. But she is a single mother and does love her girls. After all, sometimes even I dream of putting another beverage in my travel mug to get through another birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese!

According to the notes at the end of the book, this is the author’s first foray into adult literature. She has written a couple of YA books. However, Goodreads lists another first published in 2004. This one was good enough that I plan to read her others!

Publication Date: January 9, 2018

Genre:  Thriller, suspense, mystery, crime, detective

Cover:  OK

Rating: 4.5 stars (rounded to 5)

Source:  I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book!

"The Girl Who Lived" by Christopher Greyson

The Girl Who Lived by Christopher Greyson

Warning: spoiler alert!

Small towns. It’s great when you are in a bind and because everyone knows you they help out. However, when everyone knows your history, it’s not so great. That’s how “The Girl Who Lived” plays out. Even before Faith returns to her hometown, everyone knows. Everyone she runs into knows her past and exactly who she is. She is the girl who lived. The girl who survived a horrific crime when four others didn’t.

I wish I could say I was a fan of this book, but I just wasn’t. The premise was great and I was very interested after reading the synopsis. However, it mostly just annoyed me.

First, the resolution of the story had so many twists and turns, I felt like I was on a tilt-a-whirl that was out of control. I enjoy a novel with lots of twists and turns that all click into place at the end, but not just for the sake of confusing the reader. That is how this book felt to me.

Second, I find it hard to believe that Beverly lived believing that Faith and her father were a “mistake” her entire life and never felt it.  I would think that would have been hard for Beverly to hide and that Faith would have felt that and the book would have been full of examples of Beverly loving Kim, Faith’s sister, more and treating her better.

Third, I find it hard to believe that Beverly did not enact revenge against Hunter and Woods for killing her “precious” Kim too, which was never part of the plan. Kim was her baby with the man she truly loved.

Additionally, the spouse/parent is always the first suspect. Did nothing turn up during the initial investigation to point the finger at Beverly? It seems like Faith’s father was found guilty far too easily and that no one, including Kim, thought that two people might be involved in the initial murder. The police did not investigate enough to find out that Kim’s father did not have Fabry disease and could not be Kim’s father.

I did love Mrs. Henderson’s character. Was she crazy, physic, or communicating with her dead son? What the heck was going on with her? I liked how that part of the story played out.

Publication Date: November 4, 2017

Genre:  Thriller, suspense, mystery, crime, conspiracy

Cover:  OK

The House on Foster Hill by Jaime Jo Wright

What do two murders committed over 100 years apart have in common? Kaine Prescott races to find out before she is the next victim.

After her husband Danny’s “accidental” death, Kaine believes she is being stalked and gaslighted. Determined to make a change and escape San Diego, she buys the local “fixer-upper” haunted house in Oakwood, Wisconsin after only seeing an online advertisement as Oakwood was the home of her great-great-grandmother, Ivy.

It seems, however, that the stalker has followed her to Oakwood and the house on Foster Hill. Strange things begin happening and Kaine feels like she is losing her sanity. Unlike the San Diego police force, the Oakwood police don’t believe that she is merely suffering from PTSD and imagining the odd things going on in her life.

Kaine makes quick friends and soon discovers that the house on Foster Hill was the site of a murder that involved Ivy and a missing infant many years ago. She feels a kinship with Ivy as they both understand that grief is “a high currency to pay for loving someone.”

Kaine learns everything she can about Ivy and learns that Ivy was an oddity in Oakwood. Ivy assisted her father during postmortem examinations and even kept a death journal so that everyone she knew who died would never be forgotten.

“The House on Foster Hill” is an excellent mystery.  Throughout the book, the characters learn that no matter the circumstances, there is always hope. Heaven is the future and “there is no despair in eternity, in God’s presence, in His perfection. There is only hope. He is my hope.”  

 

Publication Date: November 21, 2017

Genre:  Thriller, suspense, mystery, Christian fiction

Cover:  Perfect!

Source:  I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book!

Rating: 4 stars

"The Good Daughter" by Karin Slaughter

Two bowls of ice cream… I can’t get that out of my mind after reading this book. However, there are lots of other significant “twos”.  Two daughters (Charlotte and Samantha Quinn), two heart attacks, two houses, two pictures, and two very horrific, devastating, life-altering events; connected even though they are years apart.

The reader learns about the first event through each of the girls’ eyes and how it changed their lives and shaped them. I don’t want to offer any more details so that I don’t give anything away.

Start this book on a Friday evening when you can read until you finish. It’s that amazing… with an ending you will never see coming! And when you realize the significance of the two bowls of ice cream… wow! Karin Slaughter wove this story through 28 years in the girls’ lives, never omitting a significant detail or tidbit that enhanced the story and she tied it all up with a satisfying, bloody, ripped ribbon at the end.

Karin Slaughter has moved into the top 10 on my favorite author’s list. Before “The Good Daughter” I had only read three of her books which were decent, but “The Good Daughter” blows all three away. Thought this book was so great that I changed my vote in GoodReads Choice, Best Mystery & Thriller category (from another of my top 10 authors).

Release Publication Date: August 8, 2017

Genre:  Thriller, suspense, mystery,

Cover:  Perfect!

Source: I won this book through Goodreads First-Reads. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book!

#slaughtersquad #thegooddaughter

"Where We Belong" by Lynn Austin

“God knows when the hour of our end will be” and “rich or poor, we each have a God-given calling to fulfill” are the primary themes of this novel. Rebecca and Flora Hawes are sisters who truly take this to heart and spend their lives finding and fulfilling God’s calling. They don’t let Victorian standards get in their way. Thanks to their Father, they don’t spend their days attending parties and looking for husbands but travel the Earth in search of and accomplishing their calling.

This book is five large sections with one from each of the four main character’s point of view. Rebecca’s stories sandwich Flora, Soren and Kate’s and tell how their lives intertwine.

The book begins in the Sinai Desert in 1890 and spans 30 years. The chapters jump to a different time in the sister’s lives before returning to 1890. With some books, this can be confusing but not in this case. As with all Lynn Austin novels, the timelines were well thought out and executed.

This book was very well researched. I enjoyed learning about Chicago, the Sinai Dessert and the Monastery of St. Catherine. The author’s descriptions made me feel as if I was there and a part of the story.

Be sure to read the Author’s Note at the end as this book was based on two sisters who really existed!

Release Publication Date: October 3, 2017

Genre:  Fiction, Historical, Christian

Cover:  Beautiful and absolutely perfect!

Source: I received this book from the publisher, BethanyHouse, in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book!

Rating: 5 stars