Two Kinds of Stranger by Steve Cavanagh

Two Kinds of Stranger 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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One offers a helping hand. The other is your worst nightmare...

Social media influencer, Elly Parker, had the perfect life, that is until she discovered her husband had been having an affair with her best friend.

But as hurt, betrayed, unmoored as Elly is, she has made it her mission to help others in need. Even strangers.

When Elly meets a man on the steps to the subway platform, crutches in one hand and a yellow suitcase by his feet, she can’t help but feel sorry for him.

Just as he planned.

This small act of kindness sets off a change of events more terrifying than anything she ever could imagine.

To survive, Elly will need to convince the world what happened to her was real. She needs a lawyer who can bend the rules to find the truth. Eddie Flynn and his team must find the stranger with the yellow suitcase. But little do they know this cunning killer is a master manipulator and is always one step ahead.
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One thing to know about me - I am always up for an Eddie Flynn book. Therefore, when an invitation to read Steve Cavanagh's latest of Flynn's adventures as a former con man turned lawyer showed up in my mailbox, I was a quick, "Yes, please!" and downloaded that thing immediately. Just as was the case with every other book of Steve Cavanagh's I have read (a quick count tells me that is eight...does that make me a superfan?), I was thoroughly entertained. There is something about the way that this author writes that grabs me from page one and keeps me fully engaged until the very last page.

In this new offering (as usual, published first in the UK and then the following year here in the US), we get to enjoy another twisty, gripping courtroom thriller that takes place both inside of and outside of the courtroom. Flynn's usual cast of partners lend their special magic to the storyline, and the accused is someone who is easy to root for, as it is obvious from the beginning that she has been wrongfully accused. And the bad guy in this story? The level of uneasiness I felt just thinking about someone like him being out in the world was just over the top. He was a bone-chillingly cold level of evil. And because I know Cavanagh's style, as I was reaching the end of the book and it seemed like things were being tied up nicely, I knew that there were perhaps more twists to be had, and I was not disappointed.

Best of all, in the author's note, he said that we can expect more books in this series, so I know that this had not been the last I have seen of Eddie Flynn. This was an excellent way for me to spend my day, and I read the entire book in one sitting because I could not put it down!

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Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise

Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to Celadon Books, via NetGalley, for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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In Michigan, Sarah’s childhood was defined by fear and silence. As a teenager, she saw a chance to escape and took it. Now, in 1999, she is an artist living on the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she is known as Saoirse (pronounced Sear-sha)—a name that sounds like the sea and means freedom in the language of her adopted country. And free is precisely how she is finally beginning to feel. Her partner and two beloved daughters are regular subjects of her paintings, and together they have made the safe home she always longed for. But Saoirse's secrets haunt her. No one must learn of the identity she has stolen in order to survive; they cannot know of the dangers that she crossed an ocean to escape.

When her artwork wins unexpected acclaim at a Dublin exhibition, the spotlight of fame threatens to unravel the careful lies that hold her world together. Journalists and admirers begin to ask questions about the mysterious artist from Donegal, and she fears the unwanted publicity will expose all that she has done.

Saoirse is an evocative, suspenseful exploration of the intimate relationship between art and life and the lies we tell ourselves in the name of reinvention.
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Charleen Hurtubise's US debut is a stunning novel that traces the life of a memorable FMC from her adolescence through her early adult years, as she escapes a traumatic past and the fear that defined her childhood. Unfortunately, the past can't stay buried forever, and her work as a talented artist, work that has been instrumental in her movement toward healing, might be just the thing that has this past coming back to haunt her.

This book was what I would describe as compulsively readable. It was a one-sitting read for me, and I am not sure I would have been happy if I had to set it aside and come back to it later. This is one I would have stayed up late in the night to finish...but luckily I had an afternoon free, so I didn't have to do that. The pacing of the narrative was perfect, and the characters within it were so well-developed that they came alive in my mind. I found myself feeling so protective of Saoirse as she made every decision, not all of them good ones, in an attempt to protect her little world from blowing up because of her past. While not a suspense novel, there were some twists that made it suspenseful, and I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read books set in Ireland, coming of age novels, or stories of found family and how you can build community in unexpected places.

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Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris

Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Leigh is the last of the Wildes. She knows this because she watched them all die.

Grief never truly fades and even as the tragedy haunts her, Leigh carries on, because survival is in her blood. So, when the transport bus taking her to prison careens off the road, killing everyone onboard except her, she does what's in her nature. She survives.

While searching for a place to hide, Leigh stumbles upon an unexpected sanctuary: a flower farm in rural Alabama tucked away from the world. What Leigh doesn't expect is the found family there who have built something from the wreckage of their own lives. Especially Jackson, the farm's owner, who sees through Leigh's defenses, offers her small moments of tenderness, encourages her to face her own tragedies. Slowly, Leigh finds peace with the hard pace and soft nature of the farm, taking comfort in the life blooming around her. Maybe she's not beyond redemption, not too broken for something good. And maybe, just maybe, Leigh starts to heal.

But the past isn't so easily buried.

No matter how far she runs, the truth of who she is and the ghosts of the Wildes follow. And when those secrets catch up to her, threatening everything she's come to love, Leigh will have to truly face what she can survive.
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If a book is about found family, I am almost sure to love it. And that is certainly true of this newest offering from Terah Shelton Harris. I was grabbed by this beautful story immediately, as our brave, resilient FMC sets off to heal from generations of trauma and her own personal grief and tragedy. Unfortunately, she has the added wrinkle that she is on the run from the law. As Leigh's story unfolds throughout the book, she is introduced to a whole cast of characters who I could not help but fall in love with, as their stories were richly told, and they became an integral part of Leigh's journey. All of this set against the backdrop of a rural Alabama flower farm makes for a rich and layered piece of fiction that is partly a love story but mostly a story of the survival of the human spirit and what happens when you take a chance on people and let them in.

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Adrift by Will Dean

Adrift by Will Dean
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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Peggy and Drew, both aspiring writers, move to an isolated canal boat with their fourteen-year-old son. Peggy is the glue that holds their family together, even as their son is bullied relentlessly for his physique and his family’s lack of money. But when Drew becomes frustrated by his wife’s sudden writing success, he moves their boat further and further from civilization.

With their increasing isolation, personal challenges become harder to ignore, even as they desperately try to break toxic generational patterns. But when Drew’s gaslighting becomes too much for Peggy to take, it sets off a catastrophic series of events.

With Will Dean’s signature “well-drawn characters and excellent prose” (Sarah Pearse, New York Times bestselling author), Adrift is gripping exploration of the ties that bind when everything spirals out of control.
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When I saw that Will Dean had a new book coming out, I immediately added it to my TBR. After all, his book The Last One is a book that I still can't stop thinking about and recommend often, almost two years after I read it. This new book is about as different from The Last One as it could be, but it is well worthy of a spot on your bookshelf.

Throughout this entire book, there was never a point where I didn't just feel...uneasy. The gaslighting that Peggy is subjected to at the hands of her husband both made me feel for Peggy and question my own recollection of some the events I had read about. As I wondered how it was that Peggy and her son could possibly survive life on this secluded boat with a man who was becoming less and less like the man Peggy had married, the sense of impending doom I felt had me glued to my Kindle, and I found that I could not put down this book until I was done with it. This is domestic suspense at its finest, and it left me looking forward to reading more from Will Dean.

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And the Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

And the Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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After a mortifying—and very public—humiliation, Dancy Flynn is desperate to find sanctuary far from the crowd. But where can a washed-up sex symbol hide? How about making an unannounced appearance at the secluded lake house of the sweet, sensitive high school boyfriend she hasn’t seen in almost twenty years?

But Chicago Stars quarterback Clint Garrett is no longer the kid Dancy remembers. Now he’s a gridiron superhero, still holding a massive grudge against her for breaking his teenage heart. With no room in his life for either complexity or distractions, he banishes Dancy to a refurbished old railroad caboose tucked away in the woods…and out of his sight.

Except Dancy’s not good at staying invisible. Her efforts to rebuild her career clash with Clint’s desperation to regain his focus, all made more challenging by a rescue dog, a local woman in trouble, a meddling mother, an ex with an agenda…and the sizzle of rekindled emotions.

As Dancy attempts to get her life on track and Clint tries to get his groove back, can these two one-time lovers navigate their rocky pasts and complicated present to find themselves…and each other?
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TIL that Susan Elizabeth Phillips can be credited with bringing us the joy of the sports romance, something that even someone like me who does not enjoy watching sports on TV can appreciate when it shows up on my reading list. I don't know when I first started reading the Chicago Stars series, as it was before I started recording the year I read my books on Goodreads (which was 2008), but I do know that it was after several books in the series had already been written because I recall a weeks long binge of those first books as I fully immersed myself in the world of this football team. As the years have gone by and the books have been spread out more, every time a new Chicago Stars book comes on the scene, it's like a wonderful surprise, and I was thrilled to have an opportunity to read this offering ahead of its publication date.

As readers have come to expect from Phillips, we get in this book a FMC who has plenty of flaws but is at her heart a strong and fiercely independent woman. We have a man who is traditionally very masculine but is a bit of a softie on the inside. We have an accompanying cast of characters that round out what is at its heart a beautiful romance that has some enemies-to-lovers mixed with some childhood sweethearts and second-chance romance, all with a dose of forced proximity to round it out. If any of these tropes pique your interest, this is one for you. Most of all, if you, like I, have been reading about the adventures of the Chicago Stars for the better part of twenty years (or thirty years...It Had to Be You came out in hard cover in 1994!), And the Crowd Went Wild will feel both wonderfully familiar to you and delightfully new, and it will immediately have you hoping that there is another Chicago Stars book on its way.

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This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her there’s a birthday gift from her husband waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldn’t come as more of a shock. Partly because she can’t remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. But mainly because Joe died five months ago....

When she goes to pick up the present, Alfie, the bookshop owner with kind eyes, explains the gift—twelve carefully chosen books with handwritten letters from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.

At first Tilly can’t imagine sinking into a fictional world, but Joe’s tender words convince her to try, and something remarkable happens—Tilly becomes immersed in the pages, and a new chapter begins to unfold in her own life. Monthly trips to the bookstore—and heartfelt conversations with Alfie—give Tilly the comfort she craves and the courage to set out on a series of reading-inspired adventures that take her around the world. But as she begins to share her journey with others, her story—like a book—becomes more than her own.
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As a lifelong reader, I am always on the lookout for books about books. Therefore, when I heard about this new offering from Libby Page and saw its enchanting cover, I knew that I wanted to add it to my reading list. After spending much of today engrossed in Tilly's story, I can report that I am so happy that I discovered this beautiful and magical story of the transformative power that books can have in people's lives.

Tracing Tilly's journey from new widow to adventurer who is learning to trust herself again was a delightful way to spend the bulk of my afternoon. Readers get to follow her as she gets out of her home and starts to live her life again after suffering an unimaginable loss, and through the pages of this lovely novel, we get to know Tilly and her supporting cast of characters as they navigate the intricacies of grief.

There were moments that made me laugh and moments that had me shedding a tear, but most of all, I found myself rooting for Tilly and all the people that she had gathered on her journey as she learned to navigate life without her husband by her side. This is a special book and one that will stick in my mind for a long time, and it was an easy five-star rating for me.

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Love and Other Brain Experiments by Hannah Brohm

Love and Other Brain Experiments by Hannah Brohm
My rating: 4 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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Neuroscientist Dr. Frances Silberstein has success on the brain. As a grad student, she was offered a job by her brilliant boyfriend, but determined to make it on her own, she turned it—and him—down. Now, stuck in postdoc purgatory with no job security and no personal life to speak of, Frances is desperate to make a breakthrough. Her best shot is a summer conference packed with her field’s leading scientists. The only problem? It’s organized by her ex, who has found the success that’s eluded her. But backing out is not an option, because Frances desperately needs to network to save her career.

Enter Dr. Lewis North: her perceptive, meticulous, and inconveniently attractive rival. When their academic sniping gets mistaken for flirtatious chemistry, Frances doesn’t deny it—putting her integrity and career on the line. As soon as her prefrontal cortex is operational again, Frances realizes she needs to keep up the charade, or risk everything she’s worked for. Faking data is out of the question, but fake dating? That might just be the solution she needs.

But as Lewis starts to make her reward centers spark and a major setback has Frances questioning everything, she must confront what she’s willing to chase—for love, for science, and for the future she thought she wanted.
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As someone who has a laboratory science degree and learned long ago to embrace the nerdy side of my personality, I could tell immediately this book would be right up my alley, so I jumped at the chance to read it when I was offered an advanced electronic copy. I have to say that Brohm's debut novel did not disappoint. It had just enough science in it without getting too technical to go over most readers' heads, and the couple at the heart of the story were likable right away. There were some of the usual tropes that make modern romance novels fun, and I am not at all opposed to these tried and true plot points, so I will almost always enjoy a fake dating storyline. There was just enough conflict in it to keep things from feeling too predictable, and there were a couple of interesting side stories that lent themselves to the overall flow of the book. Overall, this was an enjoyable addition to my reading list, and I hope that this author continues to give us more of these STEM romances. I will definitely be looking out for them!

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