Breezing into the tony seaside paradise of Westport, Connecticut, gorgeous thirtysomething Piper Reynard sets down roots, opening a rehab and wellness space and joining a local yacht club. When she meets Leo Drakos, a handsome, successful lawyer, the wedding ring on his finger is the only thing she doesn’t like about him. Yet as Piper well knows, no marriage is permanent.

Meanwhile, Joanna has been waiting patiently for Leo, the charismatic man she fell in love with all those years ago, to re-emerge from the severe depression that has engulfed him. Though she’s thankful when Leo returns to his charming, energetic self, paying attention again to Evie and Stelli, the children they both love beyond measure, Joanna is shocked to discover that it’s not her loving support that’s sparked his renewed happiness—it’s something else.

Piper. Leo has fallen head over heels for the flaky, New Age-y newcomer, and unrepentant and resolute, he’s more than willing to leave Joanna behind, along with everything they’ve built. Of course, he assures her, she can still see the children.

Joanna is devastated—and determined to find something, anything, to use against this woman who has stolen her life and her true love. As she digs deeper into Piper’s past, Joanna begins to unearth disturbing secrets . . . but when she confides to her therapist that she fears for the lives of her ex-husband and children, her concerns are dismissed as paranoia. Can she find the proof she needs in time to save them?

This book, by far, will be in my top five best books of 2020!!!

Piper, who has changed her name moves to the East coast to start her life again after the death of her husband and stepdaughter. Piper was an initial suspect in these deaths until the ruling but the ex-wife and mother of the victims feel they were murdered.

Joanna, the loving wife of Leo Drakos and mother to Evie and Stelli. Knowing that Leo is still fighting depression she encourages him to attend a class at Piper’s Healing Arts business. But that may have been her biggest mistake because Piper and Leo have instant chemistry. Leo tells Joanna that their relationship is over and tells her to move out and Leo gets sole custody of the children.

Joanna is devastated and begins stalking Piper and looking into her past.

The pages were turning at warp speed!!! I kept going back and forth as to who, Piper or Joanna, was the true victim and my opinion kept changing. Heart pounding suspense!! Red herrings throughout!!! The ending, THE ENDING!!! OMG!!! It was intense and one that had my head spinning!!!

This has got to be one of the best domestic psychological thriller novels that I have read.

As for a rating, I wish I could say a 10!! It was that good!! Run, don’t walk, to get your hands on a copy!!!!!

Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗

In her new bestseller, New York Times bestselling Barbara Delinsky explores how lives and relationships are forever changed when three sisters reunite at their family Rhode Island beach house.

One phone call is all it takes to lure real estate photographer Mallory Aldiss back to her family Rhode Island beach home. It’s been twenty years since she’s been gone—running from the scandal that destroyed her parents’ marriage, drove her and her two sisters apart, and crushed her relationship with her first love. But going home is fraught with emotional baggage—memories, mysteries and secrets abound.

Mal’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Joy, has never been to the place where Mal’s life was shaped and is desperate to go. Fatherless, she craves family and especially wants to spend time with the grandfather she barely knows.

In just seven watershed days on the Rhode Island coast three women will test the bonds of sisterhood, friendship and family, and discover the role that love and memory plays in defining their lives.

For the last 15+ months, I have been reading nothing but psychological thrillers and was in need of a bit of a change and then I saw that this book was available for review. So I requested a copy from St. Martin’s Press via Netgalley for the following reasons. Did I make a good choice?

1. It’s been some time since I read a book by Ms. Delinsky, which I need to reevaluate and ask myself why I haven’t and I need to rectify that.
2. The description/synopsis
3. The cover
4. Family relationships
5. Both mystery and romance
6. And that the setting is in my home state

Mallory Aldiss has not been home in 20 years to see her father and younger sister, Anne, ever since the accident that tore 2 families apart and that became fodder for gossip to this day. Until Mallory receives a phone call from their neighbor, who was also the man that she loved and had left behind because of the incident, stating that her father had threatened him with a gun, was failing in health and the house needed repair. Her older sister, Margo, took the side of their mother and swore she would also never return, but decides it’s time to go back.

Mallory’s daughter, thirteen-year-old daughter Joy, pleads with her to make the trip from NY to RI to visit with her grandfather and aunt since she is craving to have a family. Mallory agrees to go for a week but what happens in that week reignites questions, disagreements with her sisters as each one has their own perspective of their childhood and what fractured their relationships, her feelings towards the guy she left behind and one mystery that she needs to know who she really is.

I was pulled into the story from page one, which was both poignant and captivating. The characters were believable to the point that I felt that I personally knew them. The family dynamics were both emotional and raw at times. The setting gorgeous, even though it was all familiar to me, I’m sure any reader will be able to picture it in their mind. The writing fluid. Just enough mystery and romance all rolled up in one.

I asked, did I make a good choice, my answer is ABSOLUTELY!! I loved this book!!!!

Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗

Mailbox Monday

Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.

Thursday:
His & Hers by Alice Feeney ~ eBook from Flatiron Books via NetGalley

1. I _____________a _________________and a _________________________.
2. One nice thing about staying home is _________________________.
3. _________ instantly makes my day better.
4. When someone disagrees with me, I _________.

1. I had a 3 day consecutive back operation and a positive result.

2. One nice thing about staying home is staying in my pajamas especially on cold and/or rainy days.

3. FaceTiming with my granddaughters instantly makes my day better.

4. When someone disagrees with me, I listen to their thinking/opinion and then agree to disagree.

Gudenkauf proves herself the master of the smart, suspenseful small-town thriller that gets right under your skin.” —Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author of The Nanny

Everyone has a secret they’ll do anything to hide…

Twenty-five years ago, the body of sixteen-year-old Eve Knox was found in the caves near her home in small-town Grotto, Iowa—discovered by her best friend, Maggie, and her sister, Nola. There were a handful of suspects, including her boyfriend, Nick, but without sufficient evidence the case ultimately went cold.

For decades Maggie was haunted by Eve’s death and that horrible night. Now a detective in Grotto, and seven months pregnant, she is thrust back into the past when a new piece of evidence surfaces and the case is reopened. As Maggie investigates and reexamines the clues, secrets about what really happened begin to emerge. But someone in town knows more than they’re letting on, and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried deep.

Heather Gudenkauf is one of the authors on my “authors to read list”, so when I saw that she had a new book coming out, I knew I had to get a copy in my hands!!! And once again, she didn’t disappoint.

As the synopsis states, 25 years ago, Eve Knox age 16, was found dead in the Grotto Caves State Park by her younger sister and best friend, Maggie Kennedy. At the time, Maggie’s father was police Chief, however, the department never found her killer.

Now 25 years later, Maggie Kennedy-O’Keefe is a detective with the same department and reopens the cold case as new evidence has come to light.

There are quite a few suspects, that still reside in this town, which Maggie soon learns has had some unsavory pasts, lies, and secrets as to what happened that fateful day, December 22, 1995, including Maggie herself.

The story alternates from the present and what led up to that fateful day in December.

Reading this book was like walking through a corn maze trying to figure out who the real killer was since the author introduces red herrings throughout that makes this book a page-turner. And with every turn of the page, brings taut suspense, which makes it an engrossing read. LOVED IT!!!!

Another electrifying and white knuckle read by Heather Gudenkauf!!! I will be on the lookout for her next novel and will try to wrangle another ARC!!!

If you haven’t read a book by this author, you are truly missing out!!!!

Check out my reviews for some of her previous books: Before She Was Found, Little Mercies, and These Things Hidden

Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗

Synopsis:

A modern day mystery with WWII tactics, old-time heroes and values, and the efforts of two amateur cousin sleuths from the Heartland.

On a sparkling spring morning in the Blue Ridge, small-town realtor Miranda Davis approached the tailgate market, intent on dealing with her whimsical cousin Skip’s unexpected arrival from New York. It turns out that Skip was on the run and, in his panic, grabbed his beloved tabby Duffy, recalling that Miranda had a recent part in solving a case down in Carolina. His predicament stemmed from intercepting code messages like “Countdown to D-Day,” playfully broadcasting the messages on his radio show over the nation-wide network, and subsequently forced to flee.

At first, Miranda tried to limit her old childhood companion’s conundrum to the sudden abduction of Duffy the cat. But the forces that be were hell-bent on keeping Skip under wraps by any means after he now stumbled close to the site of their master plan. Miranda’s subsequent efforts to decipher the conspiracy and somehow intervene placed both herself and her old playmate on a collision course with a white-nationalist perpetrator and the continuing machinations of the right-wing enterprise, with the lives of all those gathered for a diversity celebration in nearby Asheville and a crucial senatorial vote on homeland security hanging in the balance.

Book Details:

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Published by: BQB Publishing
Publication Date: March 1st 2020
Number of Pages: 338
ISBN: 1945448571 (ISBN13: 9781945448577)
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Author Bio:

Shelly Frome is a member of Mystery Writers of America, a professor of dramatic arts emeritus at the University of Connecticut, a former professional actor, a writer of crime novels and books on theater and film. He is also a features writer for Gannett Media’s Black Mountain News. His fiction includes Sun Dance for Andy Horn, Lilac Moon, Twilight of the Drifter, Tinseltown Riff, Murder Run, Moon Games and The Secluded Village Murders. Among his works of non-fiction are The Actors Studio and texts on the art and craft of screenwriting and writing for the stage. Miranda and the D-Day Caper is his latest foray into the world of crime and the amateur sleuth. He lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

What inspired you to write this book?
At a certain point the machinations of the current administration and the tribal nature of politics began to get to me and I began longing for the decency and honesty of another time when I had faith in our government.

What was the biggest challenge in writing this book?
The biggest challenge was creating a dynamic that included the whimsical outlook prevalent in the Heartland of yesteryear and WWII tactics that could realistically be employed by the far right today.

Give us a glimpse of the research that went into this book.
For one thing, I had to come up with the testing of concealed high tech bomb making methods and the repair of a touring Harley Davidson motorcycle.

How did you come up with the title?
I needed a “grabber” that fit into the cozy genre and also promised to venture far beyond the homey word of typical examples.

Your routine in writing?# Any idiosyncrasies?
I seem to rely a great deal on a kind of daydreaming—trying scenes out in my mind until they jell and spur me on.

Tell us why we should read your book?
I suppose it’s highly unique, replete with an engaging whimsical duo as central characters, a host of colorful antagonists and supporting players, and a trendy, impending threat evolving around a dire conspiracy.

Are you working on your next novel?# If so, can you tell us a little bit about it?
The working title is “Shadow of the Gypsy” and involves being caught up in other peoples’ stories, sometimes known as your heritage, as opposed to recreating your possible true self under pressure.

Fun Questions:
Your novel will be a movie.# You would you cast?
If I could find someone like Shirley Maclaine and Jack Lemmon to play the leads and somebody like Steve McQueen to play Vin the cool sociopath, I would be off to a great start.

Favorite leisure activities/hobbies?
Exploring nature with my golden/doodle Baxter

Favorite foods?
Just about any combination of pasta and seafood like shrimp, lobster, clams and braised salmon.

Catch Up With Shelly Frome:
ShellyFrome.com, Goodreads, BookBub, Instagram, Twitter, & Facebook!

Read an excerpt:

Tour Participants:

Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!

Giveaway!!:

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Shelly Frome. There will be 2 winners of one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card each. The giveaway begins on May 1, 2020 and runs through June 2, 2020. Void where prohibited.

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Mailbox Monday

Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.

Monday:
Don’t Make A Sound by T.R. Ragan ~ eBook from Prime
Wednesday:
The Mother-In-Law by Kiersten Modglin ~ TPB personally purchased

1. I just finished _______________________________.
2. I am hoping to start ______________________________.
3. _________ is my idea of success.
4. When I can’t sleep, I _________.

1. I just finished reading A Week At The Shore by Barbara Delinsky, and really enjoyed it.

2. I am hoping to start cleaning out closets/draws and purging items that we don’t need or haven’t used in years.

3. Being surrounded by family and friends is my idea of success.

4. When I can’t sleep, I will either read or watch TV.