No Exit by Taylor Adams

 

A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?

On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside, are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.

Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.

Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?

There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?

Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.

But who can she trust?

My Thoughts 

At first this story started out calm and collected and I was wondering what everyone was raving about.  She was driving in horrible conditions and then had to pull into a rest area. Then Darby walks by the van and sees the hand.  OMG!  I just about hide a heartattack!

I mean is she sure that's what she saw or was it all her freezing cold imagination?

What would you do if that was you?  I asked myself that as I was making my way through this crazy story page by page...

Would I try to figure out who's van it is?  Probably...

Would I think of a way to free the child?  I think so...

Would I then come up with a plan as to how to kill her kidnapper?  I'm not so sure...that's a rather large feet to tackle all on my own!

But you do you girl!

I mean there were A LOT of cringe worthy moments through out this book, but it was worth it!

Get your copy today!  I can't type it all out our I will ruin your experience!

Drink Selection

 I'm pairing this crazy tale with a Blizzard - bring on the bourbon!  

Rating

About Taylor

Taylor Adams directed the acclaimed short film And I Feel Fine in 2008 and graduated Eastern Washington University with the Excellence in Screenwriting Award and the prestigious Edmund G. Yarwood Award. His directorial work has screened at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival and his writing has been featured on KAYU-TV’s Fox Life blog. He has worked in the film/television industry for several years and lives in Washington state. EYESHOT is Adams' debut novel, published by Joffe Books.

Link to Purchase

Amazon 

Our Little Secret by Roz Nay

 

They say you never forget your first love. What they don't say though, is that sometimes your first love won't forget you...

A police interview room is the last place Angela expected to find herself today. It's been hours, and they keep asking her the same inane questions over and over. "How do you know the victim?" "What's your relationship with Mr. Parker?" Her ex's wife has gone missing, and anyone who was close to the couple is a suspect. Angela is tired of the bottomless questions and tired of the cold room that stays the same while a rotating litany of interrogators changes shifts around her. But when criminologist Novak takes over, she can tell he's not like the others. He's ready to listen, and she knows he'll understand. When she tells him that her story begins a decade before, long before Saskia was in the picture, he gives her the floor.

A twenty-something young professional, Angela claims to have no involvement. How could she? It's been years since she and H.P., Mr. Parker that is, were together. As her story unfolds, it deepens and darkens. There's a lot to unpack... betrayal, jealousy, and a group of people who all have motives for retribution. If Angela is telling the truth, then who's lying?

My Thoughts 

Wow!  What a great story!

Angela never quite got over her first love, not by a LONG shot.  She is obsessed and that is putting it mildly!  She and HP were a match made in heaven or so she thought until Saskia came in and stole her best friend (love of her life) out from under her.  

Now she's (Angela) landed herself in a police interview room after Saskia goes missing.

 She should have done herself a favor and asked for a lawyer a long time ago.

She claims she has had no involvement with HP in years but as she talks herself out of trouble (or so she thinks) she's really talking herself right into prison. 

I highly recommend this quick read to all thriller lovers. 

Drink Selection

 This selection is leaning me towards a stiff drink, Scotch of the Rocks please!  Make that a double!

Rating 

Link to Purchase

Amazon

The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman

 

Two estranged sisters, raised in Brooklyn and each burdened with her own shocking secret, are reunited at the Springfield Armory in the early days of WWII. While one sister lives in relative ease on the bucolic Armory campus as an officer’s wife, the other arrives as a war widow and takes a position in the Armory factories as a “soldier of production.” Resentment festers between the two, and secrets are shattered when a mysterious figure from the past reemerges in their lives.

My Thoughts 

 What an amazing story about the trials and tribulations that can take place between sisters.  This was such a powerful story with many important side stories backing it up.

Ruth and Millie had to different childhoods due to the treatment from their mother and father (who never called his wife out on her behavior).  Ruth was always portrayed as the ugly duckling who should take whatever she can get and be happy.  On the flip side Millie was treated like the little princess that could do no wrong and deserved a prince (literally) to sweep her off her feet.

That type of behavior on behalf of their mother will cause a deep seated animosity between the girls.

This story also has issues revolving around domestic violence, abuse and bullying as well.

I highly recommend this book to many and it is one of my top picks of the year!

Drink Selection

   I'm going to pair this selection with The Pink Squirrel - doesn't it just sound fun?

Rating 

About Lynda

Lynda Cohen Loigman grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a law degree from Columbia Law School. Lynda practiced trusts and estates law in New York City for eight years before moving out of the city to raise her two children with her husband. She wrote The Two-Family House while she was a student of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. The Two-Family House was chosen by Goodreads as a best book of the month for March, 2016, and was a nominee for the Goodreads 2016 Choice Awards in Historical Fiction. Lynda's second novel, The Wartime Sisters, will be published on January 22, 2019.

Link to Purchase

 Amazon

Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks

Hope Anderson is at a crossroads. At thirty-six, she's been dating her boyfriend, an orthopedic surgeon, for six years. With no wedding plans in sight, and her father recently diagnosed with ALS, she decides to use a week at her family's cottage in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, to ready the house for sale and mull over some difficult decisions about her future.

Tru Walls has never visited North Carolina but is summoned to Sunset Beach by a letter from a man claiming to be his father. A safari guide, born and raised in Zimbabwe, Tru hopes to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his mother's early life and recapture memories lost with her death. When the two strangers cross paths, their connection is as electric as it is unfathomable . . . but in the immersive days that follow, their feelings for each other will give way to choices that pit family duty against personal happiness in devastating ways.

My Thoughts 

This book is quintessential Sparks and to be honest a good percentage of the book was a tad drawn out and boring for me.  Although, I can say that I like the premise of the book with the letters in the mailbox on Sunset Beach.

I love the scenes that took place in Africa, they were breathtaking in detail and awe.

I hoped from the beginning that Tru and Hope would end up together from the very beginning, but that wouldn't make for a good Sparks tale now would it?

Drink Selection

A perfect southern drink to go with the beach and sunsets would be a Mint Julep.  Delish, am I right?

Rating

About Nicholas

Nicholas Sparks is one of the world’s most beloved storytellers. All of his books have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 105 million copies sold worldwide, in more than 50 languages, including over 75 million copies in the United States alone.

Sparks wrote one of his best-known stories, The Notebook, over a period of six months at age 28. It was published in 1996 and he followed with the novels Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), True Believer (2005) and its sequel, At First Sight (2005), Dear John (2006), The Choice (2007), The Lucky One (2008), The Last Song (2009), Safe Haven (2010), The Best of Me (2011), and The Longest Ride (2013) as well as the 2004 non-fiction memoir Three Weeks With My Brother, co-written with his brother Micah. His eighteenth novel, See Me, published on October 12, 2015. His newest book, Two by Two, will be published on October 4, 2016.

Film adaptations of Nicholas Sparks novels, including The Choice, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, Safe Haven (on all of which he served as a producer), The Lucky One, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John and The Last Song, have had a cumulative worldwide gross of over three-quarters of a billion dollars.

In 2012, Sparks and his publishing agent and creative partner Theresa Park, launched Nicholas Sparks Productions, with Park as President of Production.  A film version of The Guardian is currently in development, as is a film based on Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers’s friendship with Chicago Bears teammate Brian Piccolo.

Sparks lives in North Carolina. He contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually. He co-founded The Epiphany School in New Bern, North Carolina in 2006. As a former full scholarship athlete (he still holds a track and field record at the University of Notre Dame) he also spent four years coaching track and field athletes at the local public high school. In 2009, the team he coached at New Bern High School set a World Junior Indoor Record in the 4 x400 meter, in New York. The record still stands. Click to watch the Runner’s World video with Nicholas.

The Nicholas Sparks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to improving cultural and international understanding through global education experiences for students of all ages was launched in 2011. Between the foundation, and the personal gifts of the Sparks family, more than $15 million dollars have been distributed to deserving charities, scholarship programs, and projects. Because the Sparks family covers all operational expenses of the foundation, 100% of donations are devoted to programs.

Link to Purchase

 Amazon

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib

The chocolate went first, then the cheese, the fries, the ice cream. The bread was more difficult, but if she could just lose a little more weight, perhaps she would make the soloists’ list. Perhaps if she were lighter, danced better, tried harder, she would be good enough. Perhaps if she just ran for one more mile, lost just one more pound.

Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her biggest fears – imperfection, failure, loneliness – she spirals down anorexia and depression till she weighs a mere eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where pale, fragile women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Women like Emm, the veteran; quiet Valerie; Julia, always hungry. Together, they must fight their diseases and face six meals a day.

 

My Thoughts 

This is the most poignant read of 2019.  I can say that right now, hands down.  It's relevant, sad, scary, hopeful and breathtaking all in one.

Yara's intimate details on the topic of anorexia and other eating disorders are disturbing in a very must read kind of way.  I have always wondered what life would be like for someone with that condition and Yara delivers with a brilliant writing style.

Anna has stopped living her true life and has sustained on only popcorn, apples and coffee.  She currently weighs 88 pounds and has fainted several times.  In an effort to save her life, her husband Matthius enrolls her onsite treatment at 17 Swann Street.  

Here she meets many girls with their own personal demons.  But they become a team and learn to fight together.  But this disease takes lives, will they all make it?

 

Drink Selection

 Perfect drink pairing would be a Mimosa!  Delish!

Rating

About Yara 

Yara Zgheib is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University and a PhD in International Affairs in Diplomacy from Centre D'études Diplomatiques et Stratégiques in Paris. She is fluent in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish. Yara is a writer for several US and European magazines, including The Huffington Post, The Four Seasons Magazine, A Woman’s Paris, The Idea List, and Holiday Magazine. She writes on culture, art, travel, and philosophy on her blog, "Aristotle at Afternoon Tea.

Link to Purchase 

Amazon 

Elevation by Shephen King

Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis.

In the small town of Castle Rock, the setting of many of King’s most iconic stories, Scott is engaged in a low grade—but escalating—battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. One of the women is friendly; the other, cold as ice. Both are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple, and the place is in trouble. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face–including his own—he tries to help. Unlikely alliances, the annual foot race, and the mystery of Scott’s affliction bring out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.

My Thoughts 

 I'm not sure how I feel about this book - I'm personally not seeing the point to this story.  

I'm lost as to why the main character, Scott, is wasting away and there is no reason why?  Not to be a spoiler but it's NEVER said!  What the heck?

I've never read a book by Stephen King and truthfully this story is not making me jump on the bandwagon.  

Aside from the main plot, the characters around the town of Castle Rock are well written and interesting but it doesn't truthfully help with my confusion and lost state.

Drink Selection

 I need a few drinks of something (no idea what) to wrap my head around what is happening in this story!

Rating 

 

About Stephen 

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Link to Purchase

Amazon

The Other Woman by Sandie Jones

Emily thinks Adam’s perfect; the man she thought she’d never meet. But lurking in the shadows is a rival; a woman who shares a deep bond with the man she loves.

Emily chose Adam, but she didn’t choose his mother Pammie. There’s nothing a mother wouldn’t do for her son, and now Emily is about to find out just how far Pammie will go to get what she wants: Emily gone forever.

My Thoughts 

 What an AWESOME book!  I loved everything about this book especially the fact that I was completely snowballed all the way to the very end!

The fact that many of you may not have read this story yet now crosses my mind so I will NOT spoil it for you.

But I will say that I 1000% did not see this ending and I love when a story can shock me that much.

Pammie drives me COMPLETELY crazy throughout this book and I can honesty say that if I were Emily and Pammie was a boyfriend/husband's mom I would be getting a divorce ASAP.  I can only handle so much and she surpassed my limits FOR SURE.

I can secretly say I was happy when Adam's brother treated her well BUT THEN I remembered they are from the same mother and thought she should RUN!

But then bits and pieces started creeping in and you can see the controlling nature out and that is never ok!

This story will grab from the beginning and have your mind spinning at the end.

Drink Selection

I needed a bottle to get through this book!  WOW!  Riesling hands down!

Rating 

About Sandie 

Sandie Jones has worked as a freelance journalist for over twenty years, and has written for publications including the Sunday Times, Woman’s Weekly and the Daily Mail. She lives in London with her husband and three children. The Other Woman is her debut novel.

Link to Purchase
 Amazon

Florida by Lauren Groff

 

The New York Times-bestselling author of Fates and Furies returns, bringing the reader into a physical world that is at once domestic and wild—a place where the hazards of the natural world lie waiting to pounce, yet the greatest threats and mysteries are still of an emotional, psychological nature. A family retreat can be derailed by a prowling panther, or by a sexual secret. Among those navigating this place are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple, a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable, recurring character—a steely and conflicted wife and mother.

The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida—its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind—becomes its gravitational center: an energy, a mood, as much as a place of residence. Groff transports the reader, then jolts us alert with a crackle of wit, a wave of sadness, a flash of cruelty, as she writes about loneliness, rage, family, and the passage of time. With shocking accuracy and effect, she pinpoints the moments and decisions and connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury—the moments that make us alive. Startling, precise, and affecting, Florida is a magnificent achievement.

My Thoughts 

I have not read a collection of short stories before - this was a great book to introduce that type of read. A few of the stories didn't particularly interest me, but others were very riveting and attention grabbing.

I loved the attention to detail that Lauren gave each and every story.   What an amazing picture she paints as well as intricate stories she weaves.

I won't give away too many details to each story but I will list those that attracted my attention; the stories regarding the abandoned sisters, a lonely boy with snakes and a searching homeless woman.  They grabbed my attention and had me wanting to know more!

For my first set of short stories, I was intrigued and will seek out more books of this type.

Drink Selection

I would pair this read with a warm applied cider or mulled wine, perfect for this time of year.

Rating

 About Lauren

Lauren Groff was born in Cooperstown, N.Y. and grew up one block from the Baseball Hall of Fame. She graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Hobart, and Five Points as well as in the anthologies Best American Short Stories 2007, Pushcart Prize XXXII, and Best New American Voices 2008.

She was awarded the Axton Fellowship in Fiction at the University of Louisville, and has had residencies and fellowships at Yaddo and the Vermont Studio Center.

She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband, Clay, and her dog, Cooper. 

Link to Purchase

 Amazon 

 

The World Breaks Everyone by Lauren Clark

A Gripping Cat-and-Mouse Suspense Novel

Every day, I wake up certain of only three things:

I am responsible for my mother’s death.
My father has vanished.
Someone wants me dead.

I’m on the run. It’s me against the world.
I cannot let it break me.

When sixteen-year-old Olivia Jacobs and her celebrity chef father are brutally attacked after his French Quarter restaurant opening, the shell-shocked Olivia finds herself on the run on the streets of New Orleans.

Who wants her dead? And why?

My Thoughts 

This book was a little slow to start for me and pieces were slightly confusing to figure out (characterization) but once the action get going, I couldn't put the book down.

The main character Olivia is juggling so many things on her plate - death of a parent, her father being kidnapped and someone threatening to kill her.  What 16 year old could manage that life?  Certainly not my children!

This book is high energy, high stakes, action packed and will have you guessing all the way to the end. 

For those who are looking for an action packed page turner this would be the perfect read this winter!

Drink Selection

  I would pair this story with a hot glass of mulled cider on a cold winter night!

Rating 

 About Laura 

*Laura McNeill also writes under the pen name "Lauren Clark" (The World Breaks Everyone" (August 2018 release, suspense)*

ACCLAIM FOR CENTER OF GRAVITY (July 14, 2015)

"A bold and poignant look into an imploding marriage, told in a chorus of assured voices. Center of Gravity is a compelling, fierce, and ultimately hopeful tale, and McNeill is a writer to watch."
- Josilyn Jackson, author of Someone Else's Love Story

“McNeill’s debut is a heart stopping, nail-biting suspense novel that held me captive until I read the last page."
--Colleen Coble, author of The Inn at Ocean’s Edge and the Hope Beach novels

"A breathless, gut-wrenching, satisfying page turner about the real superheroes of the world who stand up to evil and won’t back down."
--Erin Healy, author of The Baker's Wife

Laura McNeill has been a voracious reader since the age of four and would rather be stranded at the library than on a desert island. In her former life, she worked as an anchor and producer for CBS affiliates in Upstate New York and Alabama. Lauren adores her family, yoga, her new Electra bike, and flavored coffee. Center of Gravity is her first novel with Harper Collins/Thomas Nelson.

Link to Purchase

 Amazon

Mother, Can You Not? by Kate Siegal

Based on the wildly popular Instagram account @CrazyJewishMom, Kate Siegel's essay collection about life with the woman who redefined the term "helicopter mom"

There is nothing more wonderful than a mother’s love. There is also nothing more annoying. Who else can proudly insist that you’re perfect while simultaneously making you question every career, fashion, and relationship decision you have ever made?

No one understands the delicate mother-daughter dynamic better than Kate Siegel—her own mother drove her so crazy that she decided to broadcast their hilarious conversations on Instagram. Soon, hundreds of thousands of people were following their daily text exchanges, eager to see what outrageous thing Kate’s mom would do next. Now, in Mother, Can You NOT?, Kate pays tribute to the woman who invented the concept of drone parenting.

From embarrassing moments (like crashing Kate's gynecological exams) to outrageous stories (like the time she made Kate steal a cat from the pound) to hilarious celebrations (including but not limited to parties for Kate's menstrual cycles), Mother, Can you NOT? lovingly lampoons the lengths to which our mothers will go to better our lives (even if it feels like they’re ruining them in the process).

My Thoughts

What a funny freakin' book!  I just happened to receive a copy of this in my https://www.hamptongiftbag.com/ 's bag that I purchased.  For those of you who aren't familiar - Jane Ubell-Meyer puts together these amazing bags 4 times throughout the summer and it typically has 6-8 books and other goodies that you can purchase for the cost of shipping and a donation!! 

This book happened to be in there this past summer!

Kate and her mother are probably the two funniest people I have read about, and the most brutally honest.  Kate show's texts that her and her mother send each other and you will die laughing when you read them.  Her mother actually refers to her as spawn, not daughter and it kills me every time!

They talk about a wide range of topics from work to love to dr. visits and college.  If you are looking for a book to make you laugh then grab a copy today!

Drink Selection

This is clearly a Cosmopolitan book for sure!

Rating

About Kate

KATE FRIEDMAN - SIEGEL is the New York Times bestselling author of Mother, Can You Not? and the social media guru who started the hit Instagram account @CrazyJewishMom. Kate, her debut essay collection, and her #CrazyJewishMom have been featured on The Today Show, BuzzFeed, and on Nightline. Previously, she served as an associate producer for Condé Nast Entertainment, overseeing digital video for Teen Vogue, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, and The New Yorker Festival. Prior to joining Condé Nast, Kate studied English, creative writing, and theater at Princeton University.

Link to Purchase

Amazon

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the storm hits, no one is getting away.

It's winter in the Catskills and Mitchell's Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing - maybe even romantic - weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off all electricity - and all contact with the outside world - the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.

Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead - it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, everyone starts to panic.

Within the snowed-in paradise, something - or someone - is picking off the guests one by one. And there's nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm - and one another.  

My Thoughts

 I loved the characters and the concept of this story.  There were a few sections that were a little slow for me but they were few and far between.

There were times when I was thinking that these people are a little too calm for having all these dead bodies just chillin' (literally) around.

Then in the last few chapters it was like it hit them all of a sudden and they all lost it.

I can honestly say that I didn't really know who did it till the very end, this book really did have me guessing.  There were so many possibilities!

All in all, I really enjoyed this read.

Drink Selection

I would pair this cold, winter read with a Hot Toddy for sure!

Rating

About Shari

Shari Lapena is a Canadian novelist. She is best known for her 2016 thriller novel The Couple Next Door, which was a bestseller both in Canada and internationally. Lapena, a lawyer and English teacher before beginning her writing career, published her debut novel Things Go Flying in 2008.

Link to Purchase

Amazon

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.

First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.

There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.  


My Thoughts
I LOVED this book!  I've been hearing so many great things and I was able to get it from the library and read it in 1 1/2 days.  Now my daughter is reading it - she's hooked!
This really is one of the first YA books I've read since I was younger and it totally sucked me in.
The characters were well written, the story line was awesome, and each chapter had me wanting more.
I had so many different thoughts of who did it by the end and I was still surprised.
Top rated thriller/suspense read by far.


Drink Selection
I didn't have time to drink, I was too invested!  LOL But if I had, I would pair this with a few glasses of yummy Red Cat wine! I love their semi-sweet blend of Catawba and Baco Noir!


Rating

About Kara
Kara is the author of THE DARKEST CORNERS, coming April 2016 from Random House/Delacorte. She is also the author of the Prep School Confidential series from St. Martin's Griffin under the pen name Kara Taylor. Kara has written for Warner Brothers Television and currently writes full-time on Long Island, where she lives with her husband and rescue cat.


Link to Purchase
Amazon

I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.

"You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark."

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.

My Thoughts

I have mixed feelings about this book, I liked the idea of what it was about and found the case itself VERY fascinating but I found the book very slow and I had to pick it up many times to get through it.
I'm amazed at the amount of information Michelle was able to amass on this case.  She had great ties/connections with investigators, detectives, other news media etc.
It's too bad that she was never able to see the case through to the arrest of who they think may be the GSK and his upcoming trial. 


Drink Selection
I think this book deserves a stiff drink, whiskey it is!


Rating

About Michelle
Michelle McNamara was a screenwriter, journalist, and true crime writer. She was the founder of the blog "True Crime Diary," which covers lesser-known crimes and cold cases. In 2005, she married comedian Patton Oswalt. They had one daughter together, born in 2009.


Link to Purchase
Amazon

The Wedding Beat by Devan Sipher

Sometimes the best man isn't even in the wedding party...

Gavin Greene is a hopeless romantic. He's also a professional one: he writes the wedding column for a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, covering spectacular parties from coast to coast. But there's a thin line between being a hotshot reporter on assignment...and being a single guy alone on a Saturday night at someone else's wedding.

Everything changes on New Year's when Gavin meets Melinda, a travel writer with enchanting dimples. A moonlit stroll across a Manhattan rooftop seals the deal. Until an Aussie with attitude swoops in and whisks her away before Gavin gets her number.

Gavin crisscrosses New York City to find her again. And he learns that there's something worse than losing the woman of his dreams: Having to write an article about her wedding.


My Thoughts
First off, I liked how this story was told from the male perspective.  9 times out of 10 it's always female perspective. 
It's slightly, ok really out of left field, that there would be a guy that had dreams about marriage, honeymoons and babies his entire life. 
One funny line in the book, because he was still single he was letting down his species, really?  HAHA  Personally I think they would praise him.
This book has all sorts of ups and downs - love at first site, hope, deceit, cheating, happiness, which will be Gavin's fate?


Drink Selection
So many weddings, have to pair it with champagne!  Delish!


Rating

About Devan
Born in LA.

I always thought that would make a good title for my autobiography. Not that I plan on writing one.

I grew up mostly in Southfield, Michigan, which sounds misleadingly bucolic for a suburb of Detroit with more than 27 million square feet of office space.

For the past eight years I've been a writer of the Vows column at The New York Times, and my first novel, The Wedding Beat, was loosely based on my experience at the Times as a single guy writing about weddings.

My second novel, The Scenic Route, comes out in June 2014.


Link to Purchase
Amazon

I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel

For so many people, reading isn't just a hobby or a way to pass the time--it's a lifestyle. Our books shape us, define us, enchant us, and even sometimes infuriate us. Our books are a part of who we are as people, and we can't imagine life without them.

I'd Rather Be Reading is the perfect literary companion for everyone who feels that way. In this collection of charming and relatable reflections on the reading life, beloved blogger and author Anne Bogel leads readers to remember the book that first hooked them, the place where they first fell in love with reading, and all of the moments afterward that helped make them the reader they are today. Known as a reading tastemaker through her popular podcast What Should I Read Next?, Bogel invites book lovers into a community of like-minded people to discover new ways to approach literature, learn fascinating new things about books and publishing, and reflect on the role reading plays in their lives.

My Thoughts

What a perfect book about the joy of reading.  I connected with this book on so many levels and couldn't get enough.

There were bits and pieces that really stuck with me.  The chapter regarding the "sins" that readers tell other readers in private - it makes me recall when people tell me that they DNF a book.  I giggle because I used to feel bad as well, but I finally realized I'm not going to like every book and it's really a guessing game until I get into the book.

Right book right time - I have had the joy of this as well.  Recently I read The Dinner List and it truly was the book that I needed at that very moment and I devoured it. 

The concept of book shelf organization always fascinates me.  I love the thrill of taking all of them done and reading each back and finding a fun new way to display them.  Currently they are in color "order". 

When readers are obsessed with a book, I get it, but when they tell me over and over again that I MUST read it, I tend to back further and further away in spite.  LOL  Promote/Love but don't be pushy!

The chapter on bookworm problems so true - must read!

For any of you that really know me, I would LOVE to get a job in a bookstore, even part-time!  The atmosphere, the little bookish goodies, being surrounded by book lovers = pure heaven!

This may be the only book that I can honestly say that I will re-read.  Once I know what will happen, it takes a lot of the joy out of it for me.

Lastly, book journaling is amazing!  I just recently started this joy filled activity and I can honestly say that I get so much more out of a book while journaling and I will never stop!

Drink Selection

 I totally want to cuddle up with a nice warm cup of cider, delish for this cool fall weather enveloping us.

Rating

About Anne

She is the creator of the popular blog Modern Mrs. Darcy. Known by readers, authors, and publishers as a tastemaker through her popular book lists and reading guides, books are the foundation of her site, which has been affectionately dubbed “a lifestyle blog for nerds.” Anne considers that high praise. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and four kids, yellow lab, and two thousand of her favorite books.

Link to Purchase

Amazon

The Waiting Room by Emily Bleeker

Ever since her husband’s death collided with the birth of her daughter, postpartum depression has taken hold of Veronica Shelton. She can’t sleep, can’t work, and can’t bear to touch her beautiful baby girl. Her emotional state is whispering lies in Veronica’s ear: You’re a bad mother. Your baby would be better off without you. But not everything can be reasoned away by Veronica’s despair. Can it?

After all, the break-in at her house happened. The disturbing sketches she found in her studio are real. So is the fear for her daughter’s safety—especially when Veronica comes home to a cold, silent nursery and a missing baby.

As she turns from victim into primary suspect, Veronica realizes that only she can find her daughter. Authorities aren’t helping. They’re only watching. Veronica’s concerned mother has suddenly vanished from her life. And a new friend seems to be keeping secrets from her too. Now, reality is waiting for Veronica in a dark place—because someone’s mind games have only just begun.

My Thoughts
What a good read.  I was a little slow to get into at the beginning but once I started working my way though I really enjoyed it.
Postpartum depression is so real and so hard to get through.  I had it with my first and I was thankful I didn't with my 2nd and 3rd. 
I found it a little interesting/odd that someone that is so withdrawn is so willing to open up to people she randomly sees in the waiting room? 
I don't want to give away too much of the story but you will find tragedy, heartbreak, pain, fear, hope, and love all wrapped into one story.  Will it end happily?  A real page turner, I highly recommend it!


Drink Selection
Being that it's fall, I'm going with Spiked Apple Cider. Delish!


Rating

About Emily

Emily lives in suburban Chicago with her family. Between writing and being a mom, she attempts to learn guitar, sings along to the radio (loudly), and embraces her newfound addiction to running.


Link to Purchase
Amazon

What Made Maddy Run by Kate Fagan

From noted ESPN commentator and journalist Kate Fagan, the heartbreaking and vital story of college athlete Madison Holleran, whose death by suicide rocked the University of Pennsylvania campus and whose life reveals with haunting detail and uncommon understanding the struggle of young people suffering from mental illness today.

If you scrolled through the Instagram feed of 19-year-old Maddy Holleran, you would see a perfect life: a freshman at an Ivy League school, recruited for the track team, who was also beautiful, popular, and fiercely intelligent. This was a girl who succeeded at everything she tried, and who was only getting started.

But when Maddy began her long-awaited college career, her parents noticed something changed. Previously indefatigable Maddy became withdrawn, and her thoughts centered on how she could change her life. In spite of thousands of hours of practice and study, she contemplated transferring from the school that had once been her dream. When Maddy's dad, Jim, dropped her off for the first day of spring semester, she held him a second longer than usual. That would be the last time Jim would see his daughter.

My Thoughts

Such a tragic story of a life cut short.  Maddy "seemed" to have the perfect life, an Instagram story fit for a teenage princess.  But the truth lies beneath the smile that she put on for everyone, for the perfect Insta life.

This story in general touched me, knowing that my daughter deals with a high level of anxiety (and takes medication) due to school, grades, dating, work, etc.  I can see the pressure that she puts on herself for perfection and this book really makes me take note of her behavior, her words, her posts that much more.

I also spoke to her regarding this issue and I plan to have her read this next, being that she is college bound next fall.

The only parts that didn't really grab me per say, were the chapters that didn't really have to do with Maddy (maybe in theory) and her life.

Drink Selection

I want to pair this read with a nice warm glass of apple cider. 

Rating

About Kate

Kate Fagan is a columnist and feature writer for espnW, ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. She is also an in-studio contributor for The Word, a digital video segment that examines hot topics in sports. Previously, Fagan spent three seasons covering the 76ers for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her work was cited in the anthology of Best American Sports Writing 2013, and she has also been featured on Longreads, a site that curates the best in long-form journalism and fiction. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Link to Purchase

Amazon