Aviva Grossman worked hard as an intern for Florida
Congressman Aaron Levin. She also had an
affair with the married man and blogged about it on the internet during the
fledgling years of blogging. Once the
affair is revealed, in part by her own mother, Aviva sees no alternative than
to reinvent herself and start over again as an event planner in a small Maine
town. But the internet has a long memory
as Aviva, now Jane, learns when she attempts to run for local office. Jane weathered the storm once and is
confident she can do it again when her past indiscretions come to light, but
she is unprepared for the effect this will have on her 13-year-old daughter. Ruby has always believed her father is dead
and that her mother is her best friend, but is now unmoored as Jane’s past and
present collide and her deceptions to her daughter are revealed. Aviva’s story unfolds in parts: her slightly
overbearing mother, her daughter, Congressman Levin’ wife, and Jane
herself. As each woman, strong in her
own way, tells the story, double standards come to light as does the love we
feel for our families, even those who hurt us most deeply.
A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena
Karen and Tom Krupps appear to have the perfect life until a
phone call one night threatens everything they know including their very
selves. Karen is making dinner and
waiting for Tom to come home when she receives the call and dashes out of the
house, waking up in the hospital after a terrible accident, no memory of the
past few hours. Tom is kind and patient,
though now slightly wary of Karen, but confident she’ll eventually regain her
memory and that she isn’t keeping anything from him. No one is more shocked then Karen when the
police knock on her door asking what she knows about the man who was murdered
in the part of town where Karen’s
accident occurred, a neighborhood neither she nor Tom visited
before. As Karen’s memory slowly returns
she finds what she learns hard to believe; Tom stands steadfastly by her, but
the police think she knows more than she is telling and even her best friend
begins to doubt Karen. As Karen’s story
unfolds, she learns there are secrets her husband and her best friend are
keeping from her and she still isn’t sure about what happened that night…or is
she? Surprising and full of unreliable,
untrustworthy characters, this story never loses momentum and keeps readers off
balance until the very end and beyond.
The Address by Fiona Davis
This sophomore novel by the author of The Dollhouse featuring the history of the Barbizon Hotel during
two different eras does the same thing for the famed Dakota apartment building
only this time the stories are a century apart.
In 1884, the architect of the Dakota, Theo Camden, lures Sara Smythe,
who is the head housekeeper at a luxury hotel in London to Manhattan after
saving his young daughter’s life.
Predictably, Sara becomes involved with Theo and ends up, pregnant, in
the famed insane asylum on Blackwell Island after she is accused of stealing
jewels that belong to Theo’s wife. One
hundred years in the future, interior designer Bailey has just returned from a
stint in rehab but learns she is no longer welcomed at her design firm. Turning to her pseudo-cousin Melinda, who has
inherited an apartment in the Dakota through her lineage connecting her to Theo
Camden, Bailey takes over the restoration of Melinda’s apartment, but in trying
to learn the history of the building, an encouraging Melinda not to completely
destroy the integrity of the once apartment now condo, Bailey stumbles across
some artifacts and memorabilia that lead her back to Theo and Sara and may turn
Bailey and Melinda’s modern day life upside down. The plot shifts back and forth between the
past and present offering a great deal of interesting history about the
development of Manhattan and the evolution of the Dakota. Sara’s story unwinds in both the past and the
present, though there is a lot crammed into her story, including being rescued
from the asylum by Nellie Bly and some unseen, perhaps unnecessary, plot twists
as Bailey’s story comes to its conclusion.
Nonetheless, this historical novel is rich in detail and will appeal to readers
of light, historical fiction, especially those who enjoy Manhattan during the
Gilded Age.
The Party by Robyn Harding
Kim and Jeff Sanders appear to have it all: a gorgeous San
Francisco home, a great marriage, and two well-behaved children. They have agreed to throw a sweet-sixteen
sleepover for their eldest, Hannah, with the proviso no drugs, no alcohol, no
boys. Hannah readily agrees and invites
four friends over for pizza, movies, and a sleepless night. But Hannah wants to be popular and has
invited two girls who she feels are her entree into the popular crowd including
a new boyfriend. Things go terribly
wrong at the part and one of the guests, Ronni, ends up drunkenly crashing
through a glass coffee table, eventually losing her eye Things spiral out of control as Kim tries to
spin the best possible story about the incident and pretend like all will be
well; Jeff copes with his own guilt, having provided the girls with a bottle of
champagne, and Hannah deals with the aftermath of her friend’s accident, the
anger of her friend’s mother, and the way her new friends turn on Ronni when
she returns to school. Though there are
a lot of topics covered, cyber bullying, the important of social status for
adults and children, and sexting and teenage crushes, there is a lack of depth
to the characters, and an unexpected turn for Hannah at the end of the
book. Adolescent angst is well portrayed
and the narrative is compelling enough to continue reading; most readers will
be left with the relief that they are no longer teenagers.
The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter
In this third stand-alone thriller, sisters Charlie and Sam
are forced to relive the terrifying night when, thirty years earlier, as
teenagers, they watched their mother murdered and Sam is shot and left for
dead. Charlie has stayed in their
Georgia hometown where their father, Rusty Quinn has been an unpopular defense
attorney for as long as the girls remember; Charlie too practices law, and
finds herself in a school shooting that results in the death of a young girl and
the principal. Rusty is hired to defend
the Goth girl holding the gun but when he is stabbed at his mailbox, he
entreats Charlie to step in for him.
Calling Sam to come home to visit her father, the girls are thrown
thirty years back reliving the horror that lead up to their mother’s murder,
and the trial and conviction that followed; but not everything is as it seems
and the closer Charlie looks at things, the more she feels the narrative they
have been telling themselves all these years is far from what really
happened. Various plot lines told from
different points of view and angles eventually all converge and form a much
different picture of Sam and Charlie’s past, a picture that may finally help
them heal individually and as a family.
The Burning Girl by Claire Messud
Julia and Cassie have been inseparable best friends in
small-town Royston, Massachusetts since pre-school, though their lives could
not be different: Julia lives at home with two parents, her father a dentist
who practices in the family’s converted barn, and Cassie, whose more
free-wheeling mother Bev often leaves Cassie feeling adrift. As the two enter seventh grade, they begin to
drift apart: Bev falls in love, and moves in with, the straight-laced Dr. Shute
who tries to impose rules and order on Cassie’s life. As Cassie begins to head toward a more
troubled crowd, Julia is at a loss how to help her friend and how to get her
back to where they were at one time. More
of a character study and a study of a friendship, this story could easily fall
apart in less skilled hands, but Messud balances the girls’ friendships, their
lives, and their aspirations, along with their realities, with heart-breaking
results.
If the
Creek Don’t Rise by Leah Weiss
Sadie
Blue is pregnant and a little over two weeks ago married Roy Tupkin with the
hope that she might be able to break the cycle of abuse and despair and perhaps
even get out of her small Appalachian town of Baines Creek. A new teacher arrives in the town, a woman
unlike any that the people of Baines Creek have ever seen, but one who will
change everything for not just Sadie, but for everyone in the town. Told from the points of view of Sadie, the
preacher, his sister, the new teacher, and Sadie’s grandmother, Sadie’s story is
slowly revealed, each person with their own hopes and disappoints, each with
something to contribute not only to Sadie’s story but the story of the town and
its forgotten people. Sadie Blue will
pull at readers’ heartstrings as her story is told simply, amidst the abject
poverty of a small Appalachian town in the 1970’s, hovering in the shadows of
others’ stories and histories as joy is found in the most unexpected places and
desperation turns to hope. A welcome new
voice to Southern Fiction, Leah Weiss has created an unforgettable cast of
characters.
How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry
Emilia Nightingale has been flitting from country to
country, currently teaching English in Korea, returns to her Cotswolds home
when she learns her father Julius is dying.
Promising Julius she will continue to operate his lifelong enterprise
Nightingale Books, above which Emilia and her single father lived for her
entire life, is easy enough to do but when reality sets in, Emilia feels
overwhelmed as she learns of the debt the store is in and a real estate developer
who will pay top dollar for the building and location. Little by little, stories, many of them love
stories, connected with the bookshop begin to reveal themselves and Emilia
comes to understand how embedded her father was in the community but also how
important Nightingale Books was and remains, as a touchstone. This is a light, pleasant read that will
charm any romantic bibliophile who has whiled away the hours in their favorite
bookshop.
Gone to Dust by Matt Goldman
A Minnesota woman, Maggie Somerville, is found dead in her
bed covered, as is her house, with the detritus of hundreds of vacuum cleaner
bags. Private eye Nils Shapiro is hired
by a former police colleague to assist in the investigation, something Nils
hopes will help take his mind off his ex-wife.
The mounds of dirt and debris serve to eliminate any DNA evidence but
also indicate to Nils that the murder was planned well in advance. A parallel FBI investigation means that there
are limits to how the police can investigate; not so Nils who continues to
leave no stone unturned even after being warned away by the Feds. This is a nice alternative, or addition, to
Scandinavian police procedurals complete with the frozen landscape, plenty of
red herrings, and an investigator with a good sense of humor along with a
strong sense of right and wrong and justice, no matter what the cost.
Girl in Snow by Donna Kukafka
Three narrators tell the story of fifteen-year-old Lucinda
Hayes who is found murdered on a playground in a small Colorado town in this
debut. All signs point to the first narrator, Cameron Whitley who, from all
appearances, has been obsessed with and stalking Lucina; Jade, from a
dysfunctional family hates Lucinda and may not have directly murdered Lucinda,
but that book she has found, and has been putting to use, on witchcraft might
have led someone else to do the deed.
The third narrator is Russ, the police officer who was Cameron’s
father’s former partner; why Cameron’s father is no longer a police officer and
where he is seems irrelevant even after the dark past is revealed and the
connection seems only to serve as a vehicle for Russ to press harder looking
for a suspect other than Cameron. The
action happens over the three days after Lucinda’s death it seems much longer
at times. Jade’s narrative is often told
in the construct of a screenplay, perhaps allowing the character to speculate
and comment on things she mightn’t otherwise.
The murderer is fairly easy to figure out but there are enough
unanswered questions and the characters flawed enough to continue propelling
the plot forward.
Fast Falls the Night by Julia Keller
Ackers Gap, West Virginia prosecutor Bell Elkins is in a
race against time as over the course of twenty-four ours there are over thirty
heroin overdoses, three resulting in death, in the county. Bell, along with Sheriff Deputy Jake Oakes,
follows the trail of heroin through the small town and tries to shot down a
ring that has found its way to the Appalachian town, but there is a local
dealer who must be found and stopped before more deaths occur. Fans of Louise Penny will enjoy this series
with the rich setting that juxtaposes the beauty of the rural area with the
harsh realities of poverty and imperfect characters trying to do the best they
can as they make their way in this world.
Add the urgency to the plot owing to the shortened time frame and this
is an outstanding addition to the series.
Two twists at the end of the day will leave readers gasping for more.
Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker
One night seventeen-year-old Emma goes missing off the Long
Island Sound and with her her fifteen-year-old sister. Three years later, Cass returns home without
Emma and tells the story of a remote Maine island and a seemingly altruistic
couple who held the girls hostage for three years and essentially kidnapped the
child to whom Emma gave birth even as the five continued to live together. FBI Special Agent Abby Strauss worked the
case when the girls first disappeared and remains troubled by being unable to
locate the girls. Abby is brought in to interview Cass with the hopes of
fitting all the information together and finally finding Emma and solving this
crime; Cass doesn’t give Abby much to go on The more answers Cass gives, the
more questions Abby has, including the feeling that something was very wrong in
the house in which Cass and Emma grew up, starting with their self-centered mother. Abby, an expert on narcissism, knows that
beneath all of Cass’s stories the truth lies, but just where that truth is,
Abby is not certain. The layers of each
character are slowly revealed until the truth is uncovered… this thriller, with
many unreliable characters, will keep readers off-kilter and uncertain, even
after one final twist and not disappoint.
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