Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘📘
Genre - Sisters Fiction, Mothers & Children Fiction, Women's Domestic Life Fiction
Format - Paperback
Length - 368 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.



*My Review* 

This book was chosen for the January read for my local book group. I wasn't sure I was going to like it since it's not my normal genre, but I have been trying to read outside of my comfort spot. I'm definitely glad I did. Though this book is fiction, it is based on real life events. You can find out more about the real life horror in Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate.

The story goes back and forth from when the Foss girls were young and the present day. I really enjoyed reading the book from Rill's point of view when she was a little girl. I hated when those chapters ended. The story pulls at your heart and makes you wonder how someone could be so cruel and do the things they did to little children and their families. I thought the present day chapters dragged on and seemed a bit too fairytale-ish.

The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘
Genre - Psychological Thriller, Suspense
Format - Audio book
Length - 11 hours 46 minutes

*Amazon Blurb*

Juliette loves Nate.

She will follow him anywhere. She’s even become a flight attendant for his airline, so she can keep a closer eye on him.

They are meant to be.

The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to win him back.

She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants.

True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain...


*My Review* 

Juliette is crazy, but she's a controlled kind of crazy. She knows what she wants and she will build her life around getting it. It's got to be hard living 2 perfect lives.
The story wasn't bad, but is seemed awfully slow to me. I got lost a few times with all her plotting and planning. The ending was definitely not what I was expecting at all.

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘
Genre - Psychological Thriller, Crime Thriller
Format - Audio book
Length - 8 hours 40 minutes

*Amazon Blurb*

It all started at a dinner party...
A domestic suspense debut about a young couple and their apparently friendly neighbors - a twisty, roller-coaster ride of lies, betrayal, and the secrets between husbands and wives....
Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all - a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night, when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately lands on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story. Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds.
Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they've kept for years. What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family - a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.


*My Review* 

To start with, who just leaves their baby home along even if you are next door with a baby monitor? I can understand running over or a few minutes, but definitely not hours. I didn't like any of the characters right off the bat because of this. I didn't real any sympathy for the parents at any point.

This isn't a book that'll keep you in suspense for the who did it, well initially. Turns out there's more than one bad guy in this book, but trying to figure out who that is may take some time. I honestly wasn't sure until the very end basically when they told me.

A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘
Genre - Domestic Thriller
Format - Hardcover
Length - 400 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of the brutal murder of a man almost fifteen years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from an upstanding local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him?
Stella’s father, a pastor, and mother, a criminal defense attorney, find their moral compasses tested as they defend their daughter, while struggling to understand why she is a suspect. Told in an unusual three-part structure, A Nearly Normal Family asks the questions: How well do you know your own children? How far would you go to protect them?


*My Review* 

I was really excited to read this book. I was wondering what kind of trouble Stella could have gotten into to test her parents limits...if they had any...to save her. My excitement didn't last long. This story dragged on. The ending was a bit predictable and I thought it was quite boring. Her father puts himself in a bad position without even knowing any of the facts and her mother, I'll just leave that alone so as to not give anything away.
If you choose to read or have read this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘📘
Genre - Psychological Thriller, Suspense
Format - Hardcover
Length - 288 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

A spellbinding, darkly twisted novel about desire and obsession, and the complicated lines between truth and perception, Our Kind of Cruelty introduces Araminta Hall, a chilling new voice in psychological suspense.
This is a love story. Mike’s love story.
Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely, life before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love, and in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He’s found the perfect home, the perfect job; he’s sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they’ll be blissfully happy together.
It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been returning his e-mails or phone calls.
It doesn’t matter that she says she’s marrying Angus.
It’s all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he’ll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move, he’ll know just when to come to her rescue . . .


*My Review* 

This book was just what I needed during a rough book slump. I couldn't stop reading this book. It was a crazy roller coaster and I am still not sure what was going on....in a good way. I was totally unprepared for the ending and found myself unable to stop thinking about it.
I kept wondering if Mike and V were both crazy or if it was simply just him. At one point they seem like the perfect couple, although a bit weird with their "game". I mean who doesn't want someone to treat you like you are their whole world. Someone that knows and remembers what you like, don't like and how you like it.
I am really hoping for a sequel or maybe just another book from V's point of view. 

The Retreat by Sherri Smith

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘
Genre - Psychological Thriller, Suspense
Format - Hardcover
Length - 352 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

Katie Manning was a beloved child star until her mid-teens when her manager attacked and permanently scarred her face, effectively ending her career and sending her on a path of all-too-familiar post-Hollywood self-destruction.
Now twenty-seven, Katie wants a better answer to those clickbait "Where Are They Now?" articles that float around online. An answer she hopes to find when her brother's too-good-to-be-true fiancée invites her to a wellness retreat upstate. Together with Katie's two best friends - one struggling with crippling debt and family obligations, one running away from a failed job and relationship - Katie will try to find the inner peace promised at the tranquil retreat. But finding oneself just might drudge up more memories than Katie is prepared to deal with.
Each woman has come to the retreat for different reasons. Each has her secrets to hide. And at the end of this weekend, only one will be left standing.


*My Review* 

I enjoyed this book. It was a quick and easy read which is always nice. There were quite a few characters besides the main four and the author does a wonderful job making them all seem unique. Although there are many twists and turns, I was able to figure out the "who" fairly easy, while the "why" too a bit longer.

Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M.C. Beaton

Kissing Christmas Goodbye

by M.C. Beaton

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘
Genre - Cozy Mystery, Holiday Fiction, Women Sleuth
Format -Paperback
Length - 256 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

Kissing Christmas Goodbye continues the tradition in M. C. Beaton's beloved Agatha Raisin mystery series―now a hit show on Acorn TV and public television.
Unlike quite a number of people, Agatha had not given up on Christmas. To have the perfect Christmas had been a childhood dream whilst surviving a rough upbringing in a Birmingham slum. Holly berries glistened, snow fell gently outside, and inside, all was Dickensian jollity. And in her dreams, James Lacey kissed her under the mistletoe, and, like a middle-aged sleeping beauty, she would awake to passion once more....
Agatha Raisin is bored. Her detective agency in the Cotswolds is thriving, but she'll scream if she has to deal with another missing cat or dog. Only two things seem to offer potential excitement: the upcoming Christmas festivities and her ex, James Lacey. This year she is sure that if she invites James to a really splendid, old-fashioned Christmas dinner, their love will rekindle like a warm Yule log.
When a wealthy widow hires Agatha because she's convinced a member of her family is trying to kill her, Agatha is intrigued---especially when the widow drops dead after high tea at the manor house. Who in this rather sterile house, complete with fake family portraits, could have hated the old lady enough to poison her?
Agatha sets out to find the murderer, all the while managing a pretty, teenage trainee who makes her feel old and planning for a picture-perfect Christmas, with James, all the trimmings, and perhaps even snow.


*My Review* 

This book was read for my local book group. It was chosen because it was December, short and a Christmas story......or so I thought. This book was awful. The only mention of Christmas was Agatha's party she wanted to host at her house. The story was boring, even the characters were boring. The only good thing about this book was that it was very short (though I wish it was even shorter).

Tear Me Apart by JT Ellison

Tear Me Apart

by J.T. Ellison

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘
Genre - Psychological thriller
Format - Audio-Book
Length -

*Amazon Blurb*

One moment will change their lives forever…

Competitive skier Mindy Wright is a superstar in the making until a spectacular downhill crash threatens not just her racing career but her life. During surgery, doctors discover she’s suffering from a severe form of leukemia, and a stem cell transplant is her only hope. But when her parents are tested, a frightening truth emerges. Mindy is not their daughter.

Who knows the answers?

The race to save Mindy’s life means unraveling years of lies. Was she accidentally switched at birth or is there something more sinister at play? The search for the truth will tear a family apart…and someone is going to deadly extremes to protect the family’s deepest secrets.


*My Review* 

The story starts off with Mindy being a typical kid living her dream and a good life. Then she has a skiing accident that starts a series of events that'll change her life completely. She finds out she has cancer and as if that's not enough of a shock, she's told that she was adopted. Her adoption then brings so many unanswered questions which will show how much her adopted mom loves her and what she is willing to go through to give her the life she feels her daughter deserves. 

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

An Unwanted Guest

by Shari Lapena

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘📘
Genre - Murder thriller, Psychological thriller
Format - Hardcover
Length - 290 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

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 wood-burning 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 the 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, they start 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 Review* 

I enjoyed this book for a few reasons. First is that is is set in Upstate New York where I live. I always enjoy reading books set in my local area. Second, the book takes place in the winter and I was reading it during that same time of the year. So when there was a snowstorm followed by and ice storm, I was able to relate with the weather. My third reason is that is was a really book.

The guests are all enjoying the looks of the beautiful resort they find themselves staying at. They are all looking forward to a weekend away, well most of them anyways. The first night one of the guests is found at the bottom of the staircase, dead. Was it an accident or did someone push her? That day a ice storm makes the power go out and travel impossible. When the second body is found the guests really start wondering if it was just a coincidence that another accident happened or worse.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘
Genre - Historical Fiction, World War II, Contemporary Fiction
Format - Hardcover
Length - 290 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.


*My Review* 

This book was selected as the November book for my book club at my local library. I am not a big historical fiction reader, but the point of being in a book club is to broaden your horizons a little by reading things you normally wouldn't, right? I couldn't really get into this book at all. The characters all seemed well thought out, but the story didn't seem to have any high or even low points. It all just kind of went along the same flow the entire time. I know that there are many people who have read this book and loved it. I just wasn't one of them.

Letters were sent back and forth between residents on an island and a writer. She is interested in what happened to them during the war and they were happy to tell their story. Letter back and forth. Recollections of what happened and how their book club was created. Nothing exciting happened and then the book ended.

Lies by T. M. Logan

Lies

by T. M. Logan

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘📘
Genre - Crime thriller, Psychological thriller
Format - Audio-Book
Length - 10 hours and 45 minutes

*Amazon Blurb*

Six days ago, Joe Lynch was a happily married man, a devoted father, and a respected teacher living in a well-to-do London suburb. But that was before he spotted his wife's car entering a hotel parking garage. Before he saw her in a heated argument with her best friend's husband. Before Joe confronted the other man in an altercation where he left him for dead, bleeding and unconscious.

Now, Joe's life is unraveling. His wife has lied to him. Her deception has put their entire family in jeopardy. The man she met at the hotel has vanished. And as the police investigate his disappearance, suspicion falls on Joe.

Unable to trust the woman he loves, Joe finds himself at the mercy of her revelations and deceits, unsure of who or what to believe. All he knows is that her actions have brought someone dangerous into their lives-someone obsessed with her and determined to tear Joe's world apart.

What if your whole life was based on LIES?


*My Review* 

There was just no way I could have ever figured this one out. I kept thinking it was 1 of 2 people (sometimes maybe both of them), but I was wrong. The ending just hits you out of no where and made me wonder if I had missed something along the way. This is one of those books that I can't really go into detail about because I am afraid that I might give something away. All I can say is that it a very good book if you enjoy thriller and suspense.

All Roads End Here by David Moody

All Roads End Here

by David Moody

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘
Genre - Dystopian, Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Horror
Format - Paperback
Length - 352 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

It’s taken Matthew Dunne almost three months to get home. Never more than a few meters from the Haters at any time, every single step has been fraught with danger. But he’s made it.
In his absence, his home city has become a sprawling, walled-off refugee camp. But the camp–and the entire world beyond its borders–is balanced on a knife-edge. During his time in the wilderness, Matt developed a skill which is in high demand: the ability to anticipate and predict Hater behavior. It’s these skills that will thrust him into a web of subterfuge and danger. As the pressure mounts inside the camp, he finds himself under scrutiny from all sides.
He’s always done his best to avoid trouble, but sometimes it can’t be helped. The shit’s about to hit the fan, and this time Matt’s right at the epicenter.


*My Review* 

I was introduced to David Moody when I read his book One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning. That book had me hooked right away. Unfortunately I didn't realize it was part of a series and of course I had read them out of order. Lucky for me it didn't matter and so I was super excited to read the next in the series.

My expectations were short lived. I hate leaving less that decent reviews on a book, but honestly this one felt like the horror version of Lord of the Ring. There was tons of walking. Tons of taking in the surroundings and staying out of trouble. It just wasn't what I had thought it would have been after reading the prequel.

Sorry David.

Welcome 2020

This is an actual representation of the books that I have waiting to be reviewed. Ok, not exactly an actual representation since I only have 9. Still I can't believe that I am 9 books behind in reviews. I haven't had any time to myself since September due to starting 2 jobs. It is much easier to read a few pages here and there than it is to site and write reviews.
I will be working on getting caught up as quick as possible and my one and only new year's resolution is to stay on top of my reviews and not get so far behind again.

I did end 2019 happily in my little book world. I not only met, but exceeded my goal of 55books. Granted it was only by 4 books, but that is a lot for me. I am setting my goal this year for 60. Feel free to check out my Year In Review on Goodreads.

Do you set goals for yourself? Did you meet your 2019 one? What is your goal for 2020? There are so many opportunities for a new year on the 1st day. I am going to start mine right now and work on those reviews.