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.

Monday:
THe Eighth Girl by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung ~ HC from William Morrow
Tuesday:
Dirty Old Town by Gabriel Valjan ~ signed TPB from Author
You Can’t Catch Me by Catherine McKenzie ~ eBook from Lake Union Publisher via NetGalley
Wednesday:
Take It Back by Kia Abdullah ~ eBook from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley
Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier ~ print ARC from GoodReads win
Thursday:
The Wife Who Knew Too Much by Michele Campbell ~ eBook from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley
Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin ~ eBook from Celadon Books via NetGalley
Friday:
Twenty by Debra Landwehr Engle ~ print ARC from Early Bird Books and Kensington Books giveaway
Saturday:
Stop At Nothing by Michael Ledwidge ~ HC from Harper Collins

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Mailbox Monday

Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.

Wednesday:
No Bad Deed by Heather Chavez ~ eBook from Harper Collins via NetGalley
Friday:
The Big Lie by James Grippando ~ HC from Harper Collins

1. I am particular about __________________.
2. My _____________ is ___________________.
3. _________ is a moment I will never forget.
4. Have you ever heard of _________?

1. I am particular about having my house organized.

2. My family is my everything.

3. The birth of both my sons is a moment I will never forget.

4. Have you ever heard of strufoli? A dessert that my grandmother made at Christmas.

1. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into _____________________ on Thanksgiving.
2. I will pass on ___________________ on Thanksgiving.
3. I wish _________ was served at holiday gatherings.
4. I will always be thankful for _________.

1. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the desserts on Thanksgiving.
2. I will pass on on cleaning up after Thanksgiving dinner.
3. I wish my grandmother’s chestnut stuffing was served at holiday gatherings.
4. I will always be thankful for my family.

Driving down a rocky road I saw the overgrown grass, weeds, and poison ivy overtaking the outer perimeter of the bushes. The smell of mildew permeated the air, along with the stench of animals killed by cars coming up from the ground along this dirt road. I could see the sadness on the faces in the cars behind me; I could feel the pain and sorrow. As I looked inside the cars and saw the faces of the drivers, I began to wonder what they were thinking, their thoughts and feelings as they traveled down life’s highway, maybe for the very last time.

What stories lay behind the faces behind the wheel of each oncoming car?

What stories were hidden?

Whose voices are now silenced?

Reviews:

“Unique, haunting, terrifying, incredibly moving: Fran Lewis’ SILENT VOICES is all that and more as people tell spell-binding stories of their lives – and their deaths – from beyond the grave. You won’t forget this one!” – R.G. Belsky, award-winning author of the Clare Carlson mystery series.

“Silent Voices is a shrewd, sensitive and scintillating collection of short stories that make us feel and think. Noted talk show host Fran Lewis proves herself to be as skilled a storyteller as she is a listener, adept at both tugging on our heart strings and exposing the raw emotion between the lines. Her tales reach beyond the grave in fashioning rich tapestries drawn on a sprawling landscape at once both rich in color and gray-toned. A can’t miss effort certain to live with you far beyond the turn of the final page.” -Jon Land, USA Today bestselling author

“Once again, Fran Lewis knocks it out of the park with the latest in the Silent Voices series. At once chilling, but also inspirational, these stories do not fail to entertain. They will also raise the goosebumps on your skin. Prepare to be thrilled.” Vincent Zandri, New Your Times bestselling Thriller Award winning author of The Remains and The Caretaker’s Wife

I have read previous books by this author so was looking forward for reading her latest, SILENT VOICES.

You can check out my reviews for HIDDEN TRUTHS AND LIES and A DAUGHTER’S PROMISE.

Having attended too many funerals for loved ones and making the somber drive through the cemetery to their final resting place, I too have looked at all the headstones and wondered who lies beneath those stones, who they are, how did they live and die? What are their stories?

This book consists of seven (7) short stories of those that have passed and their voices silenced. However, they get their chance to speak one final time from the grave in this book. Fran Lewis, in her descriptive writing, gives us a peek into just that and allows the reader to envision those that are of subjects of each story.

Two (2) of the stories were personal to the author, the voices of her grandmothers, which I felt so very sorry for with the kind of life they had and had to deal with.

Some of the stories are sad, some eerily chilling and some that their past caught up with them and now face their ultimate judgment.

A haunting read!! I guarantee, after reading this book, you will also wonder who lies below the headstones and what they would say if they hadn’t been silenced!