I am rounding up a review of some of my most recent reads lately. I do a mix of reading books and listening to audible books. For audible, I listen to these in the car, on a walk, traveling, or even at home while working sometimes. I like to listen to them at 1.5 speed and sometimes it feels like I fly through books. For books, sometimes I read a physical copy and sometimes it is on my kindle. It just depends. But these I mostly read at night or sometimes I throw my Kindle in my purse when I am on the go and know I will be waiting somewhere. You can read my last review here.
This was a pretty good round-up of books. I liked all the books and some I loved! I feel like there were a couple of books that I felt like have been hyped and I expected to love but they fell a little short for me. I can’t wait to hear if you guys have any opinions on some of these reads!
Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
My Review: ✮✮✮✮
I love a good Elin book and this one was a nice twist between an easy beach read in one of our favorite locations and a little bit of murder mystery. Vivian Howe is an author of beach novels with three grown kids. She is killed in a hit and run car accident while on a run. Vivi is now watching over in the Beyond and granted three nudges to change the outcome of events on earth. She has to be careful of her choices as she wants her children grow older and have problems of their own. She is also watching the investigation of her own death all while worrying about her own family secrets coming to the surface. This book was a joy to read and loved the different aspects of family, mystery, love and coming of age.
Amazon Summary:
On a perfect June day, Vivian Howe, author of thirteen beach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. She ascends to the Beyond where she’s assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three “nudges” to change the outcome of events on earth, and with her daughter Willa on her third miscarriage, Carson partying until all hours, and Leo currently “off again” with his high-maintenance girlfriend, she’ll have to think carefully where to use them.
From the Beyond, Vivi watches “The Chief” Ed Kapenash investigate her death, but her greatest worry is her final book, which contains a secret from her own youth that could be disastrous for her reputation. But when hidden truths come to light, Vivi’s family will have to sort out their past and present mistakes—with or without a nudge of help from above—while Vivi finally lets them grow without her.
With all of Elin’s trademark beach scenes, mouth-watering meals, and picture-perfect homes, plus a heartfelt message—the people we lose never really leave us—Golden Girl is a beach book unlike any other.
The Wife Who Knew Too Much by Michele Campbell
My Review: ✮✮✮
I found this story entertaining with a some good twists and turns. All things from the book may not be completely believable, but I still found it to be a good easy read. Connor Ford is married to a wealthy older woman. She is found dead at her annual 4th of July party in the Hamptons and no one knows who’s done it. Connor rekindles an old relationship (someone closer to his age) and things get complicated. Who killed Mrs. Ford and gets her fortune? There are plenty of good curve balls through out this story that kept me reading more.
Amazon Summary:
Meet the first Mrs. Ford
Beautiful. Accomplished.
Wealthy beyond imagination.
Married to a much younger man.
And now, she’s dead.
Meet the second Mrs. Ford.
Waitress. Small-town girl.
Married to a man she never forgot,
From a summer romance ten years before.
And now, she’s wealthy beyond imagination.
Who is Connor Ford?
Two women loved him. And knew him as only wives can know.
Set amongst the glittering mansions of the Hamptons,
The Wife Who Knew Too Much is a decadent summer thriller about the lives of those who will do anything for love and money. Who is the victim? Who is the villain? And who will be next to die?
The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
My Review: ✮✮✮✮
This book was also a recent favorite of mine. I loved the plot of this book and was completely engaged through the entire story. Greer and Sarah, the authors of this book, know how to write some great domestic thrillers. This story shares the lives of Marissa and Matthew Bishop who seem like the perfect couple until Marissa confesses to cheating on her husband. She finds an unconventional marriage counselor who has lost her license, but swears by a 10 session counseling style that is like no other. She will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of her clients problems — follow people, spy, whatever it takes! She knows that Marissa and Matthew are hiding more than they have revealed and she will be sure to bring the truth to the surface.
Amazon Summary:
If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in 10 sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. Her successes are phenomenal—she helps people overcome everything from domineering parents to assault—and almost absorbs the emptiness she sometimes feels since her husband’s death.
Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple—until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their eight-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist, who lost her license due to controversial methods.
When the Bishops glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.
Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McCallister
My Review: ✮✮✮
I wanted to love this book more than I did. It was a Reese Witherspoon book club choice and I felt like a hot new novel. It was unique in the way it was written and definitely original. It honestly captured my attention right out the gate which I loved as Mom, Jen, looks out the window of her home and sees her 18 year old son murder someone. She has no idea who or why, but she sees his life shattered as he’s handcuffed and taken off in a police car. She goes to bed heartbroken and with so many questions until the next day she wakes up and it’s yesterday…and then the day before and a week before and then years before. Jen has the opportunity to to travel back in time to find the reason for this horrid crime her son has committed. I guess I just got lost in some of the time travel and didn’t love this style as much as I hoped!
Amazon Summary:
Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?
Late October. After midnight. You’re waiting up for your eighteen-year-old son. He’s past curfew. As you watch from the window, he emerges, and you realize he isn’t alone: he’s walking toward a man, and he’s armed.
You can’t believe it when you see him do it: your funny, happy teenage son, he kills a stranger, right there on the street outside your house. You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your son is now in custody, his future shattered.
That night you fall asleep in despair. All is lost.
Until you wake . . .
. . . and it is yesterday.
And then you wake again . . .
. . . and it is the day before yesterday.
Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. With another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer. The trigger for this crime—and you don’t have a choice but to find it . . .
Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan
My Review: ✮✮✮
I saw so many people loving this story and thinking it was a favorite read, but I just never really fell in love with this one. Maybe it was because I was on a streak of great thrillers and this light, romantic beach read was not what I was in the mood for. None-the-less, it was cute. Nora is a divorced mom of two and writes romantic scripts (think Hallmark movies). Ironically, her life begins to turn into her own real-life hallmark movie when her most recent script is made into a movie and the Hollywood super star and former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo, is cast as her husband and filmed at her home. To Nora’s shock, when filming is complete, Leo asks to stay at her home for 7 more days and will pay rent. In just 7 days, Nora’s whole life can change…Do they fall in love or does this Hollywood celebrity break her heart and leave her in the dust??
Amazon Summary:
Nora’s life is about to get a rewrite…
Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it’s her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it’s picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne’er do well husband Nora’s life will never be the same.
The morning after shooting wraps and the crew leaves, Nora finds Leo on her porch with a half-empty bottle of tequila and a proposition. He’ll pay a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week. The extra seven grand would give Nora breathing room, but it’s the need in his eyes that makes her say yes. Seven days: it’s the blink of an eye or an eternity depending on how you look at it. Enough time to fall in love. Enough time to break your heart.
Filled with warmth, wit, and wisdom, Nora Goes Off Script is the best kind of love story—the real kind where love is complicated by work, kids, and the emotional baggage that comes with life. For Nora and Leo, this kind of love is bigger than the big screen.
All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers
My Review: ✮✮✮✮✮
This was one of my favorite thrillers to date. The story kept me guessing the entire time and there are so many good layers to this storyline. The author, Ashley Flowers, has a podcast called Crime Junkie that I have always enjoyed. This is her first book and I think she nailed it. Margot is in her mid twenties and returns to her small town of Wakarusa, Indiana to take care of her her uncle with early onset- dementia. She’s left her big-city job as a journalist and as she returns to Wakarusa she’s reminded of a murder that happened twenty years ago right across the street from her childhood home. January Jones was her friend and her killer was never brought to justice. Margot decided to make it her mission to dig up this cold-case and with that, you never know what else will come to the surface….
Amazon Summary:
You can’t ever know for sure what happens behind closed doors.
Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the infamous case of January Jacobs, who was discovered in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist. But she’s always been haunted by the feeling that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.
When Margot returns home to help care for her uncle after he is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, she feels like she’s walked into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembers—genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under circumstances eerily similar to January’s. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and to solve January’s murder once and for all.
But the police, Natalie’s family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could January’s killer still be out there? Is it the same person who took Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night twenty years ago?
Twisty, chilling, and intense, All Good People Here is a searing tale that asks: What are your neighbors capable of when they think no one is watching?
