REVIEW: THE SILENT WOMAN, BY MINKA KENT

Newlywed Jade Westmore has finally found her forever in husband Wells, a charming, successful, and recently divorced architect—only there’s one caveat. Behind the gates of their elysian estate, hidden from street view in the caretaker’s cottage … lives Wells’ first wife, Sylvie.

Three years ago, the original Mrs. Westmore suffered an unfortunate accident—and hasn’t uttered a sound since. Not a physician, psychologist, or world-renowned specialist has been able to elicit so much as a word from the silent woman … until now.

On an ordinary Tuesday while Wells was away—despite instructions to never disturb the fragile woman—Jade visited her isolated predecessor bearing a peace offering: a bouquet of white lilies. Only she wasn’t expecting Sylvie to have something for her as well: a slip of torn notebook paper with a single word scrawled in shaky black ink.

 

The Silent Woman takes the reader through the perspectives of the current wife, Jade, and Sylvie, the now silent woman. We learn more as we follow the journey of each of them.

Why would Sylvie tell Jade to “run” when she visits at the guest house? Is there a deep dark secret just waiting to change her life?

As Jade learns more about Wells’ mother Mary Claire and also gets to know others in Sylvie’s life, her interest in previous events takes her down an unexpected pathway. What she learns will change her life as well as Sylvie’s. A story that kept me rapidly turning pages and earned 4.5 stars.

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REVIEW: EVELYN, AFTER, BY VICTORIA HELEN STONE

Evelyn Tester is sleepwalking through her suburban life—until a late-night phone call startles her awake. Her husband, a prestigious psychiatrist, has been in an accident. And he isn’t alone.

Suddenly Evelyn’s world isn’t as tidy as she thought. And in the midst of it all is Juliette, not only her husband’s secret lover but also his patient. If news of the affair were to get out, it would ruin more than just Evelyn’s marriage. Although it’s a bitter pill for Evelyn to swallow, protecting her family means staying silent—even if, as she begins to discover, the night of the accident has consequences far more dangerous than the unmasking of an affair.

But the more Evelyn learns about Juliette’s picture-perfect life—complete with a handsome, unsuspecting husband—the more she yearns for revenge…and satisfaction. Her growing obsession fuels her rage, burning away her complacency. What will be left of her after it flames out?

 

 

In alternating narratives between the past and present, we learn about our protagonist’s life in Evelyn, After, and begin to question her choices, even as we can understand them.

Why has Evelyn decided to act out of vengeance? What does she discover about herself in the process? What will her choices ultimately lead to as she follows this journey?

As I journeyed with Evelyn through her story, I wondered what she would do next. Would she find the answers she seeks? Will she finally earn the love she is missing?

I enjoyed Evelyn’s story, especially the ending, which brought peace, finally. 4.5 stars.

 

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REVIEW: INSOMNIA, BY SARAH PINBOROUGH

IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT, MADNESS LIES . . .

Emma can’t sleep.

CHECK THE WINDOWS.

It’s been like this since her big 4-0 started getting closer.

LOCK THE DOORS.

Her mother stopped sleeping just before her own fortieth birthday.
She went mad and did the unthinkable because of it.

LOOK IN ON THE CHILDREN.

Is that what’s happening to Emma?

WHY CAN’T SHE SLEEP?

 

 

From the very first page of Insomnia, I was captivated by the character Emma and how her sleeplessness impacted everything in her life. Just when we begin to realize that other forces are at play, though, I was already hooked and couldn’t believe in anything but her innocence as I rooted for her.

The obsessive-compulsive actions triggered by Emma’s sleeplessness felt like a very real thing that could be more than the insomnia. The history of her mother’s mental illness was a factor in it all. But I couldn’t imagine her as responsible for everything else happening.

Phoebe was a character I couldn’t believe in. She felt like a liar and someone playing games with her family. Was there more to the story? And Robert, the husband, was another one I couldn’t rely on. What was his story?

When characters seem so untrustworthy, we begin to blame them for everything. And then, out of nowhere, comes a character who seems kind and empathetic…and just when we start to trust her, she turns out to be the worst of them all.

A great five star read that I rushed through in order to find the answers.

***

REVIEW: THE GOLDEN COUPLE, BY GREER HENDRICKS & SARAH PEKKANEN

Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all—until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.

Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn’t stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate.

When they glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.

 

Others saw them as The Golden Couple, but their new and unconventional therapist knows there is much more to their story. She has an unusual method of working on their issues, taking ten steps toward uncovering the secrets and deep flaws.

Our story is revealed through alternating narrators, and we learn more about them as we work through the steps. Even Avery has secrets, and hers are just as stunning as the others.

We might think we know everything as we discover more about each character, but as the past is revealed, nothing we believed about them is true. Danger lurks behind every corner, and as the intensity ratchets up, we are holding our breath. A brilliant 5 star read.

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REVIEW: FIND ME, BY ALAFAIR BURKE

Some pasts won’t stay forgotten . . .

She calls herself Hope Miller, but she has no idea who she actually is. Fifteen years ago, she was found in a small New Jersey town thrown from an over-turned vehicle, with no clue to her identity. Doctors assumed her amnesia was a temporary side effect of her injuries, but she never regained her memory. Hope eventually started a new life with a new name in a new town that welcomed her, yet always wondered what she may have left behind—or been running from. Now, she’s leaving New Jersey to start over once again.

Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly, Hope’s best friend and the one who found her after the accident, understands why Hope wants a new beginning. But she worries how her friend will fare in her new East Hampton home, far away from everything familiar. Lindsay’s worst fears are confirmed when she discovers Hope has vanished without a trace—the only lead a drop of blood found where she was last seen. Even more ominously, the blood matches a DNA sample with a connection to a notorious Kansas murderer.

With nowhere else to turn, Lindsay calls NYPD homicide detective Ellie Hatcher, the daughter of the cop who dedicated his life to hunting the Kansas killer. Ellie has always believed there was more to the story of her father’s death twenty years earlier—and she now fears that Hope’s recent disappearance could be related.

In pursuit of answers, the women search for the truth beneath long-buried secrets. And when their searches converge, what they find will upend everything they’ve ever known.

 

 

 

In the beginning of Find Me, we meet a young woman called Hope who is suffering from amnesia after a car accident. Her best friend, who is almost her caretaker, is Lindsay. After several years living in a small town as Hope Miller, she decides she wants to start over and be more independent. At this point, everything changes.

Does Hope disappear or is she taken? Has someone from her past turned up to do her harm? When Lindsay searches for her, even with the help of law enforcement, everything seems to go awry.

There were so many interesting characters who played a role in the story, trying to find answers and solve the mysteries. But as we draw near the end, everything seemingly turns upside down and nothing adds up. A story that was hard to put down. 4.5 stars.

 

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REVIEW: A SIMPLE FAVOR, BY DARCEY BELL

She’s your best friend.

She knows all your secrets.

That’s why she’s so dangerous.

A single mother’s life is turned upside down when her best friend vanishes in this chilling debut thriller in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.

It starts with a simple favor—an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son Nicky after school, she happily says yes. Nicky and her son, Miles, are classmates and best friends, and the five-year-olds love being together—just like she and Emily. A widow and stay-at-home mommy blogger living in woodsy suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a sophisticated PR executive whose job in Manhattan demands so much of her time.

But Emily doesn’t come back. She doesn’t answer calls or return texts. Stephanie knows something is terribly wrong—Emily would never leave Nicky, no matter what the police say. Terrified, she reaches out to her blog readers for help. She also reaches out to Emily’s husband, the handsome, reticent Sean, offering emotional support. It’s the least she can do for her best friend. Then, she and Sean receive shocking news. Emily is dead. The nightmare of her dis-appearance is over.

Or is it? Because soon, Stephanie will begin to see that nothing—not friendship, love, or even an ordinary favor—is as simple as it seems.

 

 

 

 

It starts out as a simple friendship between two mommies whose children are best friends. At some point, the mommy blogger Stephanie agrees to A Simple Favor for her friend Emily, taking care of her son while she goes away for one night.

When it turns into a disappearance, Stephanie and Emily’s husband Sean begin helping each other with childcare…and then become close friends. It all morphs into a live-in relationship between them.

Meanwhile, in alternating narratives, we learn more about both Emily and Stephanie, and later we get a closer look at Sean.

Just when we think we have figured it all out, more darkness is revealed. By the end, I didn’t like any of the characters and concluded that they were all nefarious and not to be trusted. And definitely nothing about any of them is simple. 4.5

 

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REVIEW: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR, BY NICCI FRENCH

Who is more dangerous? An enemy, a friend, or a lover?

When Bonnie Graham arrives at her boyfriend’s apartment in London, she is horrified to discover a dead body in a pool of blood on the floor. But she doesn’t call the police. Bonnie hides the corpse and then carefully wipes away any evidence she was ever there.

Bonnie is a music teacher who spent a long, hot summer in London rehearsing with a band to play at a friend’s wedding. It was supposed to be fun, but the band members find the complicated knots of their friendships—some old, some new—unraveling as the days themselves unwind. What was meant to be a summer of happiness, love, and music turns deadly as lovers betray one another, passions turn murderous, and friendship itself becomes a crime.

Everyone tells lies. But is anyone prepared to tell the truth to uncover a murderer?

 

From the beginning of The Other Side of the Door, we are swept back and forth in time: “Before” narratives followed by “After.” We only slowly come to realize what has happened and how a dead body ended up in Liza’s flat.

I thought I had it figured out, but soon realized with each piece of information provided in the flashbacks that I had been wrong.

But who did kill the man found on the floor? For a while, we didn’t even know who that was. I liked the unveiling of moments, which piqued my interest and kept me reading. Then, with each new revelation, everything is seemingly tipped upside down once again. By the end, nothing seems sorted, but life goes on. 5 stars.

REVIEW: ALL THE BEST LIES, BY JOANNA SCHAFFHAUSEN

FBI agent Reed Markham is haunted by one painful unsolved mystery: who murdered his mother? Camilla was brutally stabbed to death more than forty years ago while baby Reed lay in his crib mere steps away. The trail went so cold that the Las Vegas Police Department has given up hope of solving the case. But then a shattering family secret changes everything Reed knows about his origins, his murdered mother, and his powerful adoptive father, state senator Angus Markham. Now Reed has to wonder if his mother’s killer is uncomfortably close to home.

Unable to trust his family with the details of his personal investigation, Reed enlists his friend, suspended cop Ellery Hathaway, to join his quest in Vegas. Ellery has experience with both troubled families and diabolical murderers, having narrowly escaped from each of them. She’s eager to skip town, too, because her own father, who abandoned her years ago, is suddenly desperate to get back in contact. He also has a secret that could change her life forever, if Ellery will let him close enough to hear it.

Far from home and relying only on each other, Reed and Ellery discover young Camilla had snared the attention of dangerous men, any of whom might have wanted to shut her up for good. They start tracing his twisted family history, knowing the path leads back to a vicious killer—one who has been hiding in plain sight for forty years and isn’t about to give up now.

 

 

As we begin digging into the forty-year-old murder, All the Best Lies begin to surface as well.

I liked getting to know Ellery and Reed, as they pursue the mystery from the past while exploring their own feelings for each other.

Just when we think the two of them have uncovered clues that might lead to solving the mystery, another obstacle pushes things back for them.

It would only be at the very end that an astonishing new secret would be revealed and the answers would come. 5 stars.

***

REVIEW: YOU WILL REMEMBER ME, BY HANNAH MARY MCKINNON

Forget the truth.
Remember the lies.

He wakes up on a deserted beach in Maryland with a gash on his head and wearing only swim trunks. He can’t remember who he is. Everything—his identity, his life, his loved ones—has been replaced by a dizzying fog of uncertainty. But returning to his Maine hometown in search of the truth uncovers more questions than answers.

Lily Reid thinks she knows her boyfriend, Jack. Until he goes missing one night, and her frantic search reveals that he’s been lying to her since they met, desperate to escape a dark past he’d purposely left behind.

Maya Scott has been trying to find her estranged stepbrother, Asher, since he disappeared without a trace. Having him back, missing memory and all, feels like a miracle. But with a mutual history full of devastating secrets, how far will Maya go to ensure she alone takes them to the grave?

Shared fates intertwine in a twisty, explosive novel of suspense, where unearthing the past might just mean being buried beneath it.

 

 

As we begin the story of You Will Remember Me, we are immediately introduced to two men with mysterious and secret pasts. Jack Smith and Ash Bennett have lived very different lives. One disappears, leaving no trace, and the other wakes up with no memory.

It doesn’t take long to realize that there is more to each of their stories. But what has happened to them to cause a loss of their identities and their memories?

I liked Lily, who was in love with Jack, and felt wary of Maya Scott, who had her own agenda, in my opinion.

As the story circled back and forth between the past and the present, and as we watch the characters play out their plans, we begin to see that nothing good will come from at least one of the characters. I was cringing as I watched them but hoping that perhaps right would win after all.

But would it? In the end I was biting my nails, knowing that this story would probably not have a happy ending. Nevertheless, I loved discovering the truth and will definitely remember the characters long afterwards. 5 stars.

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REVIEW: THE END OF HER, BY SHARI LAPENA

 

A long-ago accident—and a visitor from out of the blue. . .

Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin girls. The babies are a handful, but even as Stephanie struggles with the disorientation of sleep deprivation, there’s one thing she’s sure of: she has all she ever wanted.

Then Erica, a woman from Patrick’s past, appears and makes a disturbing accusation. Patrick had always said his first wife’s death was an accident, but now Erica claims it was murder.

Patrick insists he’s innocent, that this is nothing but a blackmail attempt. Still, Erica knows things about Patrick—things that make Stephanie begin to question her husband. Stephanie isn’t sure what, or who, to believe. As Stephanie’s trust in Patrick begins to falter, Patrick stands to lose everything. Is Patrick telling the truth—is Erica the persuasive liar Patrick says she is? Or has Stephanie made a terrible mistake?

How will it end?

Who is telling the truth in The End of Her? Or will there be plenty of liars to go around?

Just when I thought I knew who to believe, another twist would come out of nowhere, and I would be stunned again.

One thing for sure, I knew I hated Erica. But is Patrick truly innocent? And what about Stephanie? She seems so sweet, and as if she could do no wrong. But are there unexpected dark depths to her?

The story takes us to the past while also plunging forward into the future to show what lies ahead for these characters.

Enough said. Saying more would spoil the tale, so suffice it to say, your head will be spinning by the time this story concludes. 5 brilliant stars.

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