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Mailbox Monday
Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.
Tuesday:
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica~ eBook from Harlequin via NetGalley
Wednesday:
Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison ~ eBook from Harlequin via NetGalley
Friday:
Whisper Island by Carissa Ann Lynch ~ eBook from Harper Collins UK via NetGalley
Six Weeks To Live by Catherine McKenzie~ eBook from Atria/S&S via NetGalley
Did I say You Could Go by Melanie Gideon ~ eBook from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley
A woman disappears into the dark city night…
Gen is on the verge of a divorce from her cheating husband. When her sister, Meg, has a convention to attend in the Big Apple, she invites Gen along to celebrate her newly found freedom. But the perfect sisters’ getaway quickly goes awry when a tipsy Gen defiantly throws her wedding ring off the hotel room’s balcony. Then, wanting some fresh air, she decides to take a late-evening walk alone and vanishes without a trace.
The investigation that follows uncovers secrets–and betrayals–between sisters and spouses that will twist the truth in on itself until nothing is clear.
What really happened to Gen and who, besides Meg, was the last to see her?
Dr. Meghan Harris has invited her sister, Genevieve Thibault and who considers each other’s best friend, for a NY weekend away to lift Gen’s spirits because she is going through a very tumultuous divorce from her husband Thad due to his infidelity after 10 years of marriage.
On the first night in NY, after the sisters go out to eat and end up having a few too many drinks, they return to the hotel. Meghan asks Gen why she is still wearing her very extravagant wedding band after all these months. Gen decides it’s time to take it off and walks out onto the balcony and throws it off. At this point, she tells Meg that she just needs to be alone and get some air. That’s the last time she is seen.
This is the first book that I have read by this author but it surely won’t be the last.
The story alternates between Gen and Meg, with the then and now.
The writing and storyline were solid. The suspense was unremitting and substantial that it had me glued to every word.
There were so many OMGs!! I didn’t see that coming throughout the book.
My explanation as to why I didn’t give it a full 5 stars was for 2 reasons. Approximately a little over halfway through I did figure out who had kidnapped Gen. Even so, I kept on reading because I felt that there had to be more to this story and I had to know the whys. And it was then that many of the OMGs!!! started. The other reason, which probably wouldn’t bother another reader, but for me, I found annoying was the use of the word mercurial too many times.
Even with that, I will be putting this “new to me” author on my “authors to read” list.
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗
Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.
Monday:
Twenty by James Grippando~ HC from Harper Collins
Balcony Of Fog by Rich Shapero ~ HC from TooFar Media
Mailbox Monday
Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.
Thursday:
Mothers Don’t Lie by Jo Crow~eBook from Relay Publishing via NetGalley
Paradox Lake by Vincent Zandri ~ eBook from Oceanview Publishing via NetGalley
Sweet Water by Cara Reinard~ eBook from Author
Friday:
Lola On Fire by Rio Youers ~ eBook from Harper Collins/Scene Of The Crime via NetGalley
Mailbox Monday
Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.
Wednesday:
Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy~ eBook from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley
Friday:
Surrender The Dead by John Burley ~ ARC from Harper Collins
I don’t want to jinx myself but I’m finding that I want to read more. Now if only I can get back to where I was before the pandemic. But I’m afraid, listening to the scientists, that we are in this for a very long time if people would listen and not be complacent.
With the pandemic that never seems to be leaving us anytime soon I’ve created worlds that might make you pause for thought. Dark stories told by the characters as they experienced their journeys into worlds that you might not want to live in a hopefully be happy in the one you’re in.
Who would have thought that we would be living in a world as we are today in 2020? Having to exist with new normals that are so foreign to us.
In WHAT IF?, author Fran Lewis takes it even further. A collection of short stories and a poem that are menacing and grim with a sci-fi undertone. Stories that will have you wondering what if? Some that were so dark, that the question of what if we lived in this new world, was scary. Each speculative tale makes the reader wonder could it be possible, and if it could be, makes it even eerier.
What If? takes you on a ride where your imagination might not want to go!! Read this one with the lights on.
Book Details:
Genre: Time Travel/ Sci Fi
Published by: Fidelli
Publication Date: July 8, 2020
Number of Pages: 78
ISBN: B08CNKX3DT
Purchase Links: Amazon | Goodreads
It was now 2050 and the world had really changed. There were no more planes or trains. All you needed to do was think about being somewhere and you were there. The government, in order to save money on gas and fuel, had banned cars, buses, and any means of transportation, and implanted chips in everyone’s arms that helped transport them to wherever they wanted to go, including the past.
A huge explosion had occurred, and all that was left in the world were twenty countries, with only twelve hundred people in each country. Most people had not survived the explosion, which had caused most of the countries to just disappear into space forever. No one really knew if anyone was out there or if these people survived somewhere, and no one really cared enough to find out.
One man called The Ruler headed all the countries, and assigned one person as the Chief of Law and Enforcement in each country. Under this person, five people helped to enforce the rules and the laws.
Then, one miserable day, someone decided there were too many wars, too many hate crimes, too many people being killed on the streets, and too much traffic and congestion on the highways. The government hired several scientists to find a solution to the problem, and that was how everyone in the entire world wound up multicolored.
Because of all the wars and fighting and hate that took place in the past, the government created a way to eliminate the many different races in the world and opted for only one. Everyone looked the same. Our faces might have looked a little different, but our skin colors were the same—multicolored. They did this so that no one would insult, mock, or hurt anyone because of their skin color. They eliminated houses of worship so that everyone was nonsectarian, and no one would be discriminated against. However, what they could not eliminate were our thoughts and desires to make changes in our lives, even though they tried.
Everyone that lived here had a job that paid the same amount. No one, no matter what they did or what career they chose, was paid more than anyone else. We never had to worry about being laid off. Unless we decided to move somewhere else our job stayed the same, and there was no room for advancement—ever. Everyone did the same thing every day. Nothing changed. Life was supposed to be anger free, insult free, and most of all, calm and tranquil. HOW DULL AND BORING! (OH! I am not supposed to say that. Opinions are not allowed here.)
One morning I got up and got dressed to go to my boring job as an accountant with the only accounting firm in this city. I went over the books daily, entered my accounts in their daily ledgers, and did taxes for some of the companies in this city. It was grunt work, and nothing exciting ever happened at work or anywhere else.
Walking to work as usual, I began remembering how it was only twenty years ago when there were cars, trains, and people running and yelling for cabs and trains to wait for them at the station. I missed the newspaper people on the street and the vendors selling hot coffee and bagels from their pushcarts. Those were the days. I loved the way people had looked and the different races and nationalities that lived here. Learning from other people was what made life exciting.
Then the unexpected happened. A new family with two children moved in down the street from me. These two kids were not going to conform to our way of thinking, and decided it was time to shake things up—and they did. One morning when going to school they each wore something other than the school’s drab gray uniform. The girl wore a pink and green dress with flowers, and the boy wore something blue, and a shirt that said, “I hate being the same. Different Rules.”
This did not go over well, and they were taken into custody by the guards in their school and promptly suspended. This did not stop them. They started screaming and yelling all sorts of words we had not heard before. “One race is not what we are supposed to be. I hate this planet. I hate all of you.”
I could not believe my ears. This was grounds for banishment into the Devoid Zone. These two children had painted stars all over their faces. Their younger sister decided to paint her face one color. Who in today’s world had a face that was one color? Everyone here looked and dressed the same. It prevented jealousy, arguments, and fashion wars. How dare they go against the laws of this state?
***
Excerpt from What if? by Fran Lewis. Copyright 2020 by Fran Lewis. Reproduced with permission from Fran Lewis. All rights reserved.
Fran Lewis is a reviewer, talk show host, mj network, reading and writing staff developer. She was the administrative assistant to the Principal and created original programs for students after school. She was the music director and created musical festivals along with other staff members. She’s a member of Marquis Who’s Who, Continental Who’s who and who’s who of America’s professionals and educators.
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