Wait by Gabriella Burnham (read in 2024)

Wait by Gabriella Burnham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and One World for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Elise is out dancing the night before her college graduation when her younger sister Sophie calls to tell her their mom is nowhere to be found. Elise leaves on the next flight back to her childhood home, Nantucket Island, for the first time in nearly four years. When she arrives she discovers the ways in which her whip-smart little sister has had to make do without her.

The sisters soon learn that police stopped their mother on her way home from work and deported her to São Paulo, Brazil. Intent on bringing her back, Elise stays and secures the same job she had in high school: monitoring endangered birds that have laid eggs on a remote beach. Meanwhile, her best friend from college, Sheba—a gregarious socialite and heir to a famed children's toy company—reveals that she has inherited her grandfather’s summer mansion on Nantucket. What will Elise do when the new life she created in college collides with the life she left behind on the island? As she confronts the emotional and material realities that have fractured her family, she is confronted by a world in Brazil that her mother has had to leave behind, too.
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I think that many of us, when we think of books set on Nantucket, think of the works of authors who bring us to the island during the summer months, when the vacation homes are open and the tourists are enjoying all that there is to offer. However, there is a year-round population to Nantucket Island, and this is the island that Burnham brings us to in this novel. She reminds us that even the shiniest of places can have a dark side, and we see an exploration of themes of sisterhood, family, and friendship, as well as the contrast between great wealth and poverty on an island that is only 14 miles long. There is an important distinction between these two versions of Nantucket, and through this work, we get to experience a coming-of-age story that is an important commentary on what happens "behind the scenes" in one of summer's affluent playgrounds.

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The Summer Sisters by Pamela Kelley (read in 2024)

The Seaside Sisters by Pamela M. Kelley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Brooklyn-based Hannah is a bestselling author struggling to write her second book after personal losses. Her older sister, Sara, still lives in Chatham, Cape Cod, where they grew up, and is married with four children. Once a dedicated librarian, Sara dreams of reviving her love affair with literature, but instead, she is stuck with too many family responsibilities and a fizzling marriage.

When Hannah gets the chance to retreat to her aunt's oceanfront house in Chatham for the summer, it seems like just the thing to get her creative juices flowing. And she’ll be able to spend more time with Sara, who is eager to find her way back into the workforce, to do something rewarding and book-related. The pair will spend the summer making friends, rekindling romance— especially Spencer, an old acquaintance from high school-turned very hot grump— and opening themselves up to the magic of books and the beach.
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I could happily spend my summer reading books that take place in locales such as Nantucket, the Lowcountry, and Cape Cod, and I usually count on Pamela Kelley to scratch my itch for a trip to Nantucket. With this novel, I was pleasantly surprised to find a different destination, and off we went to Chatham on Cape Cod to spend some summer time with a set of sisters who are reconnecting after some time apart. As a sister myself, I always enjoy these kind of stories, and Kelley's style of writing always works for me. This time was no different. I loved getting to know Hannah and Sara, and as an avid reader myself, I loved the book-related themes as well. I will read anything that Pamela Kelley puts out into the universe, and I hope to enjoy her works for many years to come.

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The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen

The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Some doors should never be opened.

Was it bitter, all-consuming jealousy? Pathological sibling rivalry? Pure insanity?

Whatever the cause―and everyone has a theory―it's the Crime of the Decade when glamorous Georgia Cartwright, who was adopted as a newborn, is accused of killing the biological daughter of her wealthy, Southern family.

Georgia is locked in a psychiatric institution where the most violent offenders are held while she awaits trial. The only words she whispers when her estranged twin sister Amanda visits are, “I didn’t do it. You’ve got to get me out of here.”

Amanda doesn't trust Georgia, but she can't abandon her in a place so eerie and menacing that it seems to exist in another dimension. Is Georgia the victim of a powerful family that's so depraved murder is the least of their crimes? Or is Amanda being led down a path of madness into the web of a master manipulator?
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I believe this was my first Sarah Pekkanen book, but I have been reading a lot of thrillers in the last two years, and I know she is known for them, so I was very excited to read it. It definitely had a lot of twists and turns...but were there too many? There were some aspects of this book that really worked. I loved that the story was told from the alternating viewpoints of Georgia and Amanda, although I join other reviewers in wondering why second person was chosen for Georgia's chapters. The twins separated at birth premise was a great starting point because of course that is going to lead to a lot of intrigue. And the psychiatric hospital setting was definitely a disturbing place to have Georgia locked up as Amanda tried to figure out just what it was that was going on in her twin's powerful family.

However, some of the twists seemed to come out of left field, and it made them a bit less than believable. The set up just wasn't always there. I definitely didn't guess who the murderer was (like this person was not on my radar AT ALL), and I feel like in the best thrillers, there should be some path that makes sense that gets us there. At the end, I didn't feel completely satisfied, although all in all, this was a good read, just not among the strongest thrillers I have read this year. However, I will definitely try this author again, as I have checked out her other offerings and see that some of them are very highly rated!

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The Violet Hour by Victoria Benton Frank

The Violet Hour by Victoria Benton Frank
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Violet Adams is the perfect, youngest child in a family of loud, passionate women on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. As the sweet, traditional one, she’s always been the steady hand in her family but after a sudden breakup and subsequent tragedy, she doesn’t know who she is anymore.

Aly Knox, Violet’s best friend, is a young influencer still struggling with the loss of her mother and adjusting to joining Violet in Southern living. With her best friend’s help, Violet is determined to break out of her shell—and who she thought she was—no matter what. And what better place to look for success, meaning, and possibly love than the Lowcountry of South Carolina?
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This was a bit of an uneven book for me. I am a huge fan of Lowcountry fiction, and the description of the setting made me feel like I was right there on Sullivan's Island. I also love women's fiction and books that feature sisters, so the friendship between Aly and Violet and the relationship between Maggie and Violet were both really enjoyable to read about. However, there were some plot points that seemed a little rushed or forced, and when I reached the end, I didn't feel quite that same sense of [deep sigh] satisfaction I did at the end of the first book in this series. I did read an advanced copy of this book, so it's possible that some of the continuity issues got cleaned up before final publication, but overall, this one was a good read for me but not quite as good as My Magnolia Summer. I did find the story of Aly's mother's death to be very touching and couldn't help but think of Dorothea Benton Frank's untimely passing and wondered how much of that was autobiographical in nature. I know that her readers miss her, and I can't even imagine how difficult that loss has been for her daughter. I do look forward to reading more in this series and hope to see more from this author in the future.

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The Devil's Advocate by Steve Cavanagh

The Devil's Advocate by Steve Cavanagh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to Atria Books via NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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He’s won every trial…because he’s behind every murder.

Ambitious District Attorney Randal Korn lives to watch prisoners executed. Even if they are not guilty.

An innocent man, Andy Dubois, faces the death penalty for the murder of young girl. Korn has already fixed things to make sure he wins a fast conviction. The one thing Korn didn't count on was Eddie Flynn.

Slick, street smart, and cunning, the former con artist and now New York lawyer has only seven days to save an innocent man against a corrupt system and find the real killer.

In a week the judge will read the verdict, but will Eddie be alive to hear it?
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Well, it's always a good day when I have a new Eddie Flynn novel to sink my teeth into. However, I have to wait to read it until I have an entire day free because chances are it's going to be a binge read for me. And this one was no different. It had a little bit of a different feel because Eddie and the gang traveled away from their usual NYC location to the Deep South to take on this case, and I was initially a little...put off? by the idea because part of what makes an Eddie Flynn book so great is the grit of fighting for justice in the big city. However, I need not have worried because Cavanagh delivered a five-star thriller once again.

Every time I read one of these books, I have to remind myself that the author is a native of Belfast and not of New York because his attention to detail is so good. This offering touched on some hot topics that are going on the US right now (even though its original publication date was 2021), and they were handled with grace and style. I learned a bit about some parts of history I was unaware of, and I appreciated the author's note at the end that gave a little more information about some things I had already taken some time and looked up myself.

As a side note, there are two books in the Eddie Flynn series that are not currently available for purchase here in the US (Why, Atria, why?), so I definitely ordered copies of them from the UK and look forward to reading them soon. I have never been so excited about a series that I ordered books in it from another country. Steve Cavanagh is THAT GOOD.

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